Echoes of the Dark
by Nanya
Summary: Transported to yet another dimension, Neptune quickly finds that this new world is far different than any she has ever been in.
1. Prologue

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

So this is one of a few ideas I've had in my head for awhile now. And just a word of warning...

This is rated M for a VERY GOOD REASON! I'm warning you right now that things are going to be... Twisted.

* * *

Prologue

It was a normal day in Gamindustri. Well, as normal as a world with divine beings known as CPUs could be at any rate.

In Leanbox, the CPU known as Vert had fallen asleep while doing some EXP farming for one of her many MMO games. Despite sleeping, she was able to play remarkably well. It only took her two attempts to land a killing blow on the Dragon instead of the usual one. And the only reason it took her two attempts was because she pressed the wrong key in her sleep.

In Lowee, the CPU known as Blanc was currently chasing her two little sisters, Rom and Ram, around as she was covered from head to toe in yellow and green paint. The two young girls laughed and ran away from the "Booger Monster" that was chasing them. Needless to say, that only encouraged Blanc to chase her sisters around even more.

In Lastation, the CPU known as Noire was currently in the shower and scrubbing herself down very thoroughly. There had been an accident in one of the factories a few hours ago and she had gotten buried under a pile of liquid goop that had gotten EVERYWHERE on her, under her underwear, over her breasts, in her eyes, ears, nose and other parts. The only thing she was thankful for was that the stuff wasn't toxic in the slightest. Her sister, Uni, was under another shower in the same room, doing the same.

And in Planeptune, the CPU known as Neptune, a short girl in a white hooded parka with light purple-colored hair that was short and spiky and eyes of the same color was in her sister's lab and looking at a large cellphone that her sister, Nepgear, was handing her. "Uh... Nep Jr., I already have a phone, what's with this?" She looked at in confusion but still took it, after all, if her sister was giving it to her, she wouldn't say no.

Nepgear, a girl with long legs and long, light purple hair with the same color as her sister's, and was wearing a white sailor outfit, smiled at Neptune. "Well, since you keep getting zapped into other dimensions, I figured you could use a cellphone that could call home."

"I don't get zapped to other dimensions THAT often!" Neptune protested.

"Ultra Dimension."

"That was Darksty who gave Rei the power to send me there." Neptune pointed out.

"Zero Dimension."

"That was because of Uzume's console we found."

"Heart Dimension."

"Kurome kidnapped me and put me in a pod."

"Remember when you helped train those Overlords to fight Trillion?" Nepgear pointed out.

Neptune sweat-dropped slightly. "Well, okay, but it doesn't happen THAT often!"

"Didn't you get pulled into another dimension to use water guns against, as you called them, ninja girls with giant boobs that rival Vert and Yellow Heart, Neptune?"

Neptune sweat-dropped, "yeah, but that was a lot of fun, that was a one time thing too!"

Nepgear gave Neptune a flat stare. "Just last week you accidentally killed yourself, ended up in Hell and got kicked back out after you made everyone down there worship you."

"Don't ask me how *I* was judged to be bad enough to go to hell." Neptune grumbled, but at least Planeptune had gotten a bunch of shares out of it. Histoire wasn't pleased with HOW she had gotten the shares, but she wasn't complaining about the fact that Planeptune was currently enjoying a surplus of shares.

"And the month before that you chased Prinnies into the Netherworld because they stole your pudding."

"But it's PUDDING!" Neptune protested and sighed. "Fine, so I sometimes get sent to other dimensions." She looked at the phone, "and how will this help me call home?"

"Well, I made it!" Nepgear smiled brightly, which slowly died off at the look of apprehension on her sister's face. "Come on, Neptune, I promise it won't blow up."

"That's... The least of my worries." Neptune sighed softly. "Nepgear, are you sure this is completely safe?"

"Of course it is!" Nepgear pouted at her sister. "You make it sound like all of my inventions are dangerous!"

"Well, not ALL of them..." Neptune admitted. "But there was the microwave you fixed for Blanc that somehow caused the food to come to life and almost kill everyone in the Basilicom."

"But that..." Nepgear whimpered, that wasn't her fault! How was she supposed to know that using mutagenic energy crystals as a power source for the microwave would have THAT effect on the food?

"Or that car you built for Uni..." Neptune chuckled as Nepgear put her hands over her heart and sunk to the floor, sulking. "Didn't it capture her, drive to the top of the Basilicom and shoot lasers out of its headlights at Noire when she tried to free Uni?" Nepgear nodded softly. "And then there was the pocket watch you made for Vert."

Nepgear whined in dismay as she heard all of that. "That's not my fault! I didn't know that I had accidentally programmed it to seek out technology to build itself a giant robot body that could travel through space!"

Idly, both sisters wondered how the robot that had started as a pocket watch before growing tentacles and taking Vert's console, television, microwave, phones, several cars, some tanks, drilling equipment, a bullet train and finally a stealth bomber and reassembling them into a robot body to fly out into space was doing.

(-)

In space, many, many miles away from Gamindustri...

A large red meteor that seemed almost alive was making its way through space. Its singular purpose was to find a planet to land on and burrow deep under ground where it would absorb nutrients and energy from the planet while evolving the species that existed so that it could harvest them in the future.

Sadly for this one, it was destroyed as a giant robot blasted through it and shattered its body into pieces.

The hard shell that remained from the creature was taken onto the giant robot as a means to repair the damage that was taken from destroying said creature.

(-)

Back in Gamindustri...

"Well, there's an extra benefit for this phone." Nepgear pointed out happily. "There's a chip in it that I made with Croire's help."

"Darksty helped you?" Neptune asked, surprised as Nepgear nodded.

"Yeah." Nepgear smiled at her sister, "I had to give her a bunch of chocolate sweets, but she helped me make the chip that's in there. So if you're in a dimension that doesn't have a Histoire, Croire can find you and get a portal open and we can come get you."

"So I shouldn't use this around the microwave then?" Nepgear asked before running out and laughing as her sister started to tear up. "Just kidding, Nep Jr.! Thanks for the phone!"

Nepgear sighed and shook her head. "What would I do without Neptune?"

She really hoped she never had to find out.

(-)

A few minutes later...

Neptune walked into the kitchen and opened the freezer up and found some frozen food. "Well, I am kind of hungry." She pulled out some microwavable pizza pockets and threw one into the microwave. "Lesse... It should be... Three minutes, right?"

Normally that would be all that would be needed.

Sadly for Neptune, when she pressed the numbers, closed the door and hit 'start', a surge of power rushed through the microwave, through her body and into the phone, causing her to start glowing green. "Ah fish sticks! I was kidding when I said I should avoid the microwave!" Neptune cried out as she disappeared in a flash of green light.

(-)

Groaning as she sat up, Neptune looked around the room she found herself in. It didn't take her long to realize that the room she was in was rather small, there was a bed, which she was on, a chair in the corner and two doors. One of the doors looked like it was a closet door. "What happened?" Neptune asked as she tried to stand up and discovered something rather shocking...

She was completely naked.

"NEP WHAT?!"

"Oh, you're awake." A familiar sounding voice was heard and Neptune watched as the door opened, revealing a familiar-looking person.

"Arfoire?!" Neptune yelled as she jumped to her feet and pointed a shaky finger at her. "I knew it! You're an evil pervert who did lewd things to me and now I don't have my clothes."

The woman gave her a confused look. While she looked like Arfoire, Neptune noted that her skin complexion was a LOT healthier than Arfoire's was, she was wearing brown pants, a gray shirt and her hair was longer than Arfoire's was. "Who in Gamworld is Arfoire? My name is Chrome."

"...Huh?!" Neptune gawked at her. "What?!" The words that the woman, apparently Chrome, had just said, was a lot more important than the fact that she was standing on the bed in the nude and looking at this woman.

"You must have hit your head or something." Chrome muttered and shook her head. "You're on the Southern most area of Lowee, the Southern Continent of Gamworld. I'm Chrome."

"...Histy, I don't think I'm in Kansas anymore." Neptune twitched, who knew her sister would be prove right so quickly?

To be continued...

* * *

For those who missed the references...

Trillion is a reference to the PSP game "Trillion: God of Destruction" where Neptune, Noire, Vert, Blanc and Uzume were DLC characters that ended up in the Netherworld and helped various Overlords train to defeat Trillion. Their attitude was surprising to the Overlords, who expected them to be more full of themselves and not as "normal" as they were.

Neptune facing off against Ninjas with boobs like Vert's is a reference to Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash as Neptune is a DLC character there.

Neptune accidentally killing herself and going to Hell is a reference to the manga "Hello New World" where she ended up in Hell. The tortures she went through in Hell were actually less painful than Histoire's lectures and thus the denizens of Hell started worshiping Neptune because she was super bad ass and Lord Yama tried to kick her out but she fought back because she didn't want to go home at first. After realizing how sad Nepgear was, she went back to her world. When she got back, the shares in Planeptune exploded from how much worship Neptune was getting. At least until the next chapter.

Prinnies stealing Neptune's pudding? Come on, they were just getting Master Etna some pudding, dood!

Oh, and the robot is a reference to GaoGaiGar with the giant asteroid being a reference to Lavos from Chrono Trigger.


	2. Yet Another World

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Since people already read the prologue before, here's chapter 1 as well.

* * *

Chapter 1

"Histy?" Chrome raised an eyebrow. "Whatever," she reached behind her and pulled out some clothes that Neptune recognized as her hooded parka and undershirt before tossing them to her. "I'm not sure you'd want your underwear, they were torn to shreds when you were found."

"...Torn to.." Neptune trailed off, her eyes widening. "Oh right!" She remembered exactly what happened after being warped to this dimension.

*Flash*

"AAAAAAAAHHHH!" Neptune yelled as she waved her arms up and down rapidly. "I HOPE THERE'S NO ONE DOWN THERE!" Part of her wanted to laugh at the thought of crashing into Noire somehow. "Too bad this doesn't look like Lastation, oooh! What's that?" She asked as she looked at the land while she fell. "There's a big mountain range over there and..." She looked down. "Oh, there's trees... Hopefully I don't hit anything hard."

When she crashed into a tree and the branches snagged her underwear, causing her to flip over and face down with her butt high in the air, she let out a scream as she felt her panties get pulled up the crack of her butt. "Owwie! Wedgies suck! LET GO!" Neptune squirmed and thrashed to get away from the evil tree.

There was a tearing sound and Neptune let out a scream as she fell down while her underwear tore in half, part of them staying in the tree while the rest floated away in a breeze.

When Neptune crashed into a hard rock, she was knocked out and missed who had found her.

*End Flash*

"Oh, that happened." Neptune giggled nervously and rubbed the back of her head. "Um, I hate to ask, but do you have any undies?" She asked, blushing as she put her clothes on. "I'm not big on going commando."

Shrugging, the Arfoire look-a-like threw something at Neptune. "I figured as much, you're lucky that you're roughly the same size as some of the girls around here, so it wasn't hard to get you some clean underwear."

"Thanks." Neptune smiled and grabbed the underwear that she was offered before she stiffened and looked at them while blushing beet red.

"...What?" Chrome honestly couldn't say that she understood why the girl in front of her was suddenly blushing like that. "Are you okay? Are you alergic to the material?"

"No, not that..." Neptune shook her head and held the panties in front of her. "They're black."

"...So?" Chrome wondered why the girl blushing more.

"...Isn't that the color of panties girls wear when they want to do lewd things?" Neptune asked, causing Chrome to face-fault. "Um, are you okay?"

"Urgh, seriously?" Chrome muttered as she got off the floor. "Listen, it's all we have for now. Either put the lewd panties on or walk around without any panties on and hope that you don't flash your butt off to everyone if the wind blows." She sighed and watched as Neptune blushed but put them on, sliding them up and under her parka. "...You know, I never got your name."

"Huh?" Neptune blinked before smiling brightly. "I'm Neptune! The main character and CPU of Planeptune." Her smile died when she saw the look on Chrome's face. It was a mixture of disturbed, shocked and anger. "Um... Are you okay?"

"..." Chrome took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "Considering how you're acting, I'm inclined to believe you're just extremely delusional."

"But I am! I'm the CPMMMMPH!?" Neptune's eyes widened as Chrome was upon her in an instant and putting her hand over Neptune's mouth and squeezing her cheeks to silence her.

"Listen here," Chrome hissed, the anger in her eyes actually caused Neptune to stiffen in surprise, "whatever you do, do NOT call yourself a CPU when you leave this room, do you understand?" When Neptune didn't show any sign of comprehension, she shook the young-looking girl. "Do you understand me?!" Chrome hissed in anger.

"MMmmhmm!" Neptune nodded as Chrome slowly pulled her hand away. "But why can't I say that I'm, well, me?"

"Speaking of which, you may want a different name..." Chrome said softly, "then again, we're far enough South that she probably won't hear about it so long as we stay down here."

"Um, hello!" Neptune protested, "Gamindustri to Arfoire wannabe! Neptune needs some information. Please? Pretty please?"

"...Gamindustri?" Chrome asked, confusion on her face. "This is Gamworld, like I said." She sighed as Neptune pouted more. "Fine, if you're going to pretend, just know that CPUs are not only hated, but feared."

"...What?" Neptune asked, her pupils shrinking. "Hated? But that... That's wrong! CPUs..."

"Are selfish, twisted, warped individuals who care nothing but their own pleasures and cause everyone around them nothing but pain." Chrome interrupted her, anger in her voice.

"...Huh?!" Neptune gawked, unable to hide her surprise. "But that doesn't sound right. CPUs are supposed to protect their people."

Chrome scoffed at that. "If by protect, you mean torment, then yes, but otherwise..."

"Chroooomey! Hey Chromey!" A young sounding voice was heard from outside the door. "Are you..? OH! There you are!" A young girl poked her head into the room before entering the room.

Chrome sighed and turned, letting Neptune see the person fully. "Filyn, what's wrong this time?"

"Well, it's... Huh?" Filyn looked at Neptune. "What's wrong with her?"

"Huh?" Chrome turned her head and looked at Neptune, who was staring at Filyn with wide eyes and a pale face. "...Are you okay?"

Neptune couldn't help but stare at the little girl. Said girl was a bit shorter than Neptune was and was wearing boots that went half-way up to her knees, grey cargo pants, a dull colored t-shirt, she had long red hair done up in long twin tails that went from her head to her hips, she had black, spiky hair clips that held her hair up and she had a black eyepatch over her right eye while her left eye was yellow. An image of an older-looking woman with the same hair and eyes as this girl flashed through her mind.

_"Pathetic, this is all the CPUs of Gamindustri can do?"_ The woman sneered as White Heart, Black Heart, Green Heart, Purple Sister and finally Purple Heart herself were bound up in cable tentacles after being defeated. _"Don't worry, you won't die, not yet. But you'll wish you were dead as we drain your shares out of you and turn you into a husk and drain your nations before releasing the Deity of Sin."_

Her chilling laughter was the last thing Purple Heart heard as she felt her shares being drained from her and she lost consciousness.

"Hey! Hey! HEY!" The voice that sounded like that woman caused Neptune to shake her head as the memory faded from her mind. "JEEZ! You suddenly froze up for no reason there!" Filyn gave Neptune an annoyed look as she tapped her foot. "You got a problem with me?"

Neptune stared at her and shook her head. 'It's not that girl, this isn't the same thing, right?' Neptune thought to herself. "Uh... What was your name again?"

"Her name is Filyn and she's basically my little sister." Chrome answered Neptune.

"A-HA!" Neptune pointed at Chrome. "I knew you two were bad guys! First you strip me naked when I'm out cold, next you gave me lewd panties and then your sister is a villain! Next you'll feed me eggplants!"

"Well, we are having eggplants for dinner tonight." Filyn admitted before her visible eye widened. "HEY! I'm not villain!"

"Your name is Filyn, it rhymes with villain!" Neptune crossed her arms and nodded. "The evidence speaks for itself! You can't confuse the main character!"

Chrome rubbed her forehead in annoyance. "I'm getting too old for this shit." She had no idea what was going through Neptune's head and decided to focus on Filyn instead. "Filyn, what's wrong?"

"Oh!" The girl's eye widened and she turned to face Chrome. "Poofy's gone!"

"Again?" Chrome smiled kindly at her. "Don't worry, you know he never gets hurt. The last time he disappeared, he came back and we found a bunch of new food, didn't we?"

"Well, yeah..." Filyn looked down, sulking. "But I'm worried about him." She looked up as she felt a hand on her head. Looking up, she blushed softly as Chrome ruffled her hair.

"Don't worry about it, kiddo, he'll show up in a day or two like always."

"Thanks, Chromey." Filyn smiled brightly and gave Chrome a hug. "Anyway, I gotta go, there's stuff to do. And Linda was looking for you."

Chrome nodded and hugged Filyn back before letting her go and watched her run off, smiling. "Anyway," she stood up and gave Neptune an annoyed look, "I don't know what you think you know, but please stop making assumptions about us just because you think you know anything." She turned and walked to the door. "Your socks and shoes are here by the door." She turned her head and gave Neptune another serious look. "And whatever you do, do NOT mention you are a CPU to anyone, understand?"

"...Fine." Neptune muttered and plopped down on the bed as Chrome left. "What's with this dimension?" She asked herself softly. It wasn't hard to figure out that she was yet another dimension. If the local Arfoire had been wearing a witch's hat and was laughing like a maniac, at least she would have felt more at home, but the fact that this... Chrome person was rather calm, collected and nice, even if a bit stern with her, was a complete shock to Neptune.

But that didn't even compare to what she had been told about CPUs. "Selfish? But we're not..." Neptune trailed off as she thought about Vert's love of gaming, how Noire loved cosplay, how Blanc loved writing and her own general laziness. "But we don't cause everyone around us pain..." She sweat-dropped as the thought of Rei, Kurome and Iris Heart all went through her mind. "But Uzume had a good reason, she thought that the world betrayed her, Rei's power made her psychotic, she's a lot better now with friends and Sadie... Um... Yeah, okay, I got nothing for her." Neptune rubbed the back of her head and sweat-dropped. "Maybe she's right, maybe all of us are pretty bad."

Neptune winced as memories of when she had been brainwashed by Kurome entered her mind and the things she said and did to Nepgear before her big self stopped her and then their sisters had to beat them all up to knock some sense into them. 'Man, I really nepped it up there, huh?' Sure, Nepgear had forgiven her, but Neptune still hated what she had tried to do, even if it was because she was brainwashed. As memories of other things she had done to Nepgear and her friends that weren't the best entered her mind, Neptune hung her head and sighed. "Great, maybe that's why I went to Hell when I killed myself by accident, huh?"

Still, she couldn't stay in this room all day. She wanted to see just what kind of world she was stuck in. "Oh! That's right! Nepgear gave me a phone to call her on, right?" Neptune started digging around in her hoodie's pockets and frowned as she didn't feel the phone. "Did I put it in my inventory?" She asked and pulled up her inventory and winced as she saw how small her selection was. "I really need to stop getting rid of my stuff after the adventures are over, I'd like to have my broken DLC stuff between adventures at least once!"

Not seeing her phone, she sighed and hoped that she didn't leave it back in the Hyperdimension, or worse, lose it when she got warped into this world and it broke. Getting off the bed, she walked to the door and put her stripped thigh-high socks on and then her shoes before stepping outside and grimacing at how bright it was. After putting her arm above her head to block out the excess light, she blinked a few times to adjust to the light and looked out.

From what she could see, there were plenty of buildings around her, the streets weren't really paved over as the roads were dirt and she could see several people meandering about, talking to each other and none of the buildings were taller than two stories and were either made of brick or wood. 'This is pretty primitive.' Not even Lowee had houses that looked this primitive and they were simplest houses in Gamindustri. 'Wait, didn't she say I was in Lowee? Why is it so warm then?' The weather was closer to Leanbox or Planeptune than it was to Lowee. "Oh! Wait, that's right! The other Blanc's Lowee was fall all the time, wasn't it?" She muttered softly. "So I guess this Lowee is more like Spring or Summer all the time, huh?" Okay, that wasn't so bad.

Looking around, she couldn't see Chrome or Filyn and shrugged before picking a random direction and walking that way. 'Maybe I'll meet someone I know or something?' Sure, they probably wouldn't be exactly like the people she knew, but if they were similar enough she could at least guess their personalities and interact with them. "After all, it worked before, it should work again." She giggled softly.

(-)

One hour later...

Neptune stared in horror as she looked out at the field of vegetables that were being harvested. Not that there was food being harvested, she liked that.

What made her stare in horror was the fact that the people were harvesting the most vile, nasty, disgusting thing known to CPUs everywhere.

"Eggplants!" Neptune screamed, threw her hands up in the air and turned to the side and started running. "AAAAAH! I DON'T WANNA GET CONTAMINACK!" She let out a grunt as she slammed into someone she didn't see when she was running and both of them fell to the ground.

"Jeez!" A familiar voice was heard and Neptune looked at the person, her eyes sparkling as she saw someone she knew. "You sure are lively!"

"Iffy?" Neptune's eyes continued to sparkle as she saw her friend. The same short brown hair, the same leafy green bow, the same green eyes, the same blue over-coat, the same old burns and scars on her face and legs. 'Wait, what?!' Neptune's eyes as she jumped back in shock and took a good look at IF as the other girl got to her feet.

The girl was... A mess. There were what looked like burn marks on her chest, neck and what she could see on IF's legs and her skin was a mixture of red and and what looked like it had just healed, leaving horrible burn scars behind that contrasted horribly with what she knew IF should look like. The burns weren't bubbly and the skin wasn't broken, a testament to whomever treated her, but it was still noticeable with the way her skin was red in some places, blue in others and yellow in yet other places. If it wasn't so horrifying it would be pretty neat, as IF looked like someone had almost tattooed fire onto her skin.

"Iffy?" The girl snorted, and Neptune noted that least she still had her nose, eyes and ears and none of them looked to be TOO badly off. "Not often someone I never met before would call me that." She tilted her head. "Wait, how DID you know my name? Oh wait, Chrome told you, didn't she?" The burned girl rolled her eyes at that. "Seriously, she needs to stop telling people what happened to me and make sure that I'm okay." IF huffed in annoyance. "I told her that I'm doing better thanks to all those treatments. I mean, my face is mostly back to normal now, my hair's grown back finally plus my skin's not bubbling and cracking like it used to."

Neptune stared in absolute horror. "...Who... Who did that to you?"

"Huh?" IF frowned in confusion. "I thought you knew." She shrugged. "Whatever, look, I'm a bit busy and I need to get going." She turned to walk away and was stopped as Neptune grabbed her coat. Turning, she looked at Neptune, who had tears welling up in her eyes. "What?"

"Please... Tell me. Who did that to you?"

IF huffed and gave her an annoyed look. "I don't know why, but fine, and just so you know I don't want your damn pity, I might be pretty weak because of this, but I'll still kick your ass if you take pity on me." Neptune nodded at that and IF sighed, feeling some of her annoyance dissipating just looking at this girl for some reason.

"I can do that." Neptune tried to smile but couldn't. At least this IF had a similar attitude to the one that was her best friend and the one that was basically her daughter. Plus she'd know who to beat up over this.

"The CPU of Lowee did this to me." IF snarled and spat on the ground. "Fucking bitch, I can't prove it, but I know that she's the reason that the guild burned down and I got caught up in that fire that killed all my friends. Does that answer your question?!"

Neptune nodded, a horrified and stunned look on her face as IF pulled herself out of Neptune's slack grip and walked off. 'The CPU did that to Iffy?' She trembled and the words of Chrome entered her mind.

_"...do NOT call yourself a CPU when you leave this room!"_

'...Are all the CPUs of this dimension this bad?' Not even Iris Heart, as Sadistic as she could be, did stuff like that. Well, other than that one time that Tekken had been alone with Iris Heart, but Neptune didn't want to think about it.

Shivering in both disgust and horror, Neptune wondered just how much worse things were going to get if she was stuck in this world for any real length of time.

To be Continued...

* * *

I am *SO* fucking mean to the characters in my fics, aren't I?

Okay, so early concept artwork for Filyn had her with an eye patch over her right eye, and in the Japanese version of Super Neptunia RPG, Filyn is voiced by CFW Magic, who has the same VA as Arfoire and Chrome anyway.

Oh yeah, I found a BUNCH of concept artwork for the characters, it's rather amazing to see just how the characters looked originally.


	3. Outpost

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

I just want to remind everyone that this fic is rated "M" for a VERY good reason.

And not just violence and swearing. There will be stuff that will disturb you. Not in this chapter exactly, but in later chapters.

* * *

Chapter 2

"What was with that yelling earlier anyway?" A slightly disgruntled female voice asked no one in particular as the person the voice belonged to plucked an eggplant off the vine.

"Don't worry about it, Chu," a large black rat said as he carried out a basket. "It's probably another refugee who managed to get this far. I mean, that's how you got here, Linda."

Linda, a green haired girl with grey eyes, a fair complexion and lithe body was wearing a tube top around her very small chest and green working pants. She snorted at the rat. "Whatever, Warechu, I'm surprised you're not with Compa."

"Ah..." Warechu blushed and rubbed the back of his head, "she was helping some people who got hurt and my arms aren't long enough to be of any help to her or the other nurses."

"Plus you're a dirty rat." Linda smirked at him, knowing that the other nurses in the area hated dealing with Warechu because he might have a bunch of diseases on his body.

"I'll have you know that I took a shower just four days ago!" Warechu yelled and crossed his arms, huffing in annoyance.

"I suppose for your kind that's pretty good." Linda said and looked up as Chrome walked into the field. "Hey, boss lady, took you long enough."

"Sorry, there was a problem with the Horsebirds that needed my immediate attention, something had them spooked." Chrome answered her. "So what did you need me for?"

"Yeah," Linda pulled out a cloth rag and wiped the sweat off of her forehead, "look, I don't want to be the bearer of bad news or anything, but the coolant units are going bad. They've been basically held together by bubblegum and paper clips at this point."

"And if they break down all the food inside the storage silos will quickly rot." Warechu added, though both already knew that.

Chrome bit her lower lip softly. "Is there anything that can be done?" When Linda shrugged helplessly, she sighed. "Great... Alright, I guess we'll be making a trip North then." She nodded at the looks she was given. "It's not like we have a choice. There's not much in Lowee between here and the Northern city."

Warechu sighed at that. "Well, at least the boats are in right now. Otherwise we're looking at a three week trip one way. Who's all going to go with?"

"I'll discuss it with the others tonight at dinner." Chrome shook her head. "Probably the same ones as usual though."

Warechu and Linda nodded and got back to work as Chrome left them. There was maybe eighty people at the outpost and the ones who usually went with Chrome when she went on long trips hardly ever changed.

"Hey, rat..." Linda looked at Warechu. "You ever go to the Northern City?" She asked while pulling eggplants free from the vines.

"Nope." Warechu shook his head as he helped Linda pluck eggplants. "How about you?"

Linda sneered, "I'm lucky to be alive, so no." She sighed, as did Warechu. Even if they hated the CPUs for allowing the world to get this messed up, there wasn't anything any of them could do about it.

After all, they were just regular people, not super heroes, what could they do against an evil Goddess?

(-)

Neptune had wandered around the compound. It had been more than four hours since she had talked to IF and had seen other children and adults around the compound. They looked a little dirty and some of them looked at her in fear, but for the most part none of them looked as bad as IF had been. Sighing, she put her hands in her pockets and continued to wander around, listening to any snippets of a conversation around her.

Most of what she heard were kids asking who she was, some people wondering what was for dinner and some were just fussing over each other.

Seeing a woman who was obviously pregnant with two young children playing near her made Neptune stop and look at her mind wandered back nearly twenty years ago to when she took IF, Compa and Peashy to a park when they were old enough to walk around without needing diapers. A small smile came to Neptune's face as she remembered the fun that she had that day. Mini-Histy hadn't been too happy that she had ducked out of work, but Neptune didn't care, between the three little girls and all the parents and children in the park that day, Planeptune's shares in the Ultradimension had increased quite a bit after people had seen that one of the CPUs not only loved kids, but also took them to the park to play with them. 'Yeah, that's what CPUs are, we make people happy, we don't do things like scar people horribly.'

Nodding, she turned and walked off, needing to see Chrome. She needed to correct the misunderstanding people had about CPUs and... "ACK!" Neptune cried out as she tripped over a rock and went stumbling forward before she crashed into a person and landed on them. "Oooof!" Neptune could admit at least her face was on something soft.

"Um, excuse me." A familiar voice spoke up and Neptune lifted her head to see this dimension's version of Compa looking at her with confused eyes. "Could you get off of me?"

"I'm sorry!" Neptune jumped off of Compa and giggled nervously. "I tripped and fell on you." At least Compa looked normal, same mini skirt, same sweater, same big boobies, same hair color and eye color. Her hair was quite short, looking more like a boy's haircut than what she was used to, but after seeing IF it was far less of a shock to her.

"Oh, that's okay then." Compa smiled and raised a hand up. "Can you help me get up?"

"Oh, sure, I..." Neptune trailed off as she grabbed Compa's hand... Or what should have been Compa's hand. Instead she saw was two hooks where her hand should have been. "What the Nep!?"

"Huh?" Compa blinked and looked at her hooks. "Yeah, I don't have my hands or forearms anymore, please help me up?"

"ACK!" Neptune yelped and grabbed Compa's arms to help her up. "Are you..." She trailed off and saw that Compa's other arm was the same as the one that she had grabbed.

"Don't you know it's rude to stare?" Compa pouted at Neptune and raised one of her hooks up to Neptune's face and Neptune looked as the hooks spread apart before closing back together. "Be nice or I'll squeeze your nose with these."

Neptune held her hands up and grinned nervously. "I'm sorry, Compa, I just never thought I'd see you with arms like that."

"Huh?" Compa blinked in confusion. "I never met you before. Did Iffy or Chromey tell you about me?"

Neptune slapped her forehead, that was twice now she had been like that. "Ah! No, sorry." How would she explain that she was from another dimension to the people here? She had told Noire in Plutia's world and the Tsundere hadn't believed it until she had seen the Histoire from the Hyperdimension who confirmed that Neptune was from another world. "Just a lucky guess?"

"Oh, okay then." Compa smiled at her. "What's your name then?"

"I'm Neptune, C..." Neptune instantly stopped and coughed a few times, "C-c-curious person extraordinaire! Yep, that's me, certainly not someone you would misunderstand to being a bad guy, I'm the main character after all!" Neptune giggled nervously as Compa blinked a few times before smiling and giggling back at her.

"You're a silly girl, Nep Nep."

Neptune smiled at that. At least that was something that was normal. If Compa actually got her name right for once, she would actually freak out and start looking around for the four Horsebird riders of Armageddon. "So, um, Compa, what do you do here?"

"Ah!" Compa's eyes lit up and if she had her hands she would be clapping them together at that moment. "I'm the head doctor that treats everyone here." She pouted and looked at her hooks. "Though it's hard to do more than just paperwork these days, the most I can do is make sure that everyone else does it right and read over the results."

"...Can I ask..?" Neptune stopped as Compa's expression darkened significantly.

"I'd rather not talk about it." Compa said, getting a nod from Neptune. "It's getting close to supper time, you wanna come with and get some food?"

Neptune grimaced slightly. "Um... I heard there was eggplants for dinner, I really..."

"Oh!" Compa nodded, instantly understanding, "you're allergic to them, huh? Don't worry, we have carrots, lettuce and potatoes tonight too."

Neptune sighed in relief, she was glad that she wasn't going to have to skip out on food at least. "Sure."

(-)

As they walked into the food hall, Neptune was surprised as she heard a familiar voice suddenly yell out. "Compa!" Warechu cried out and bounced into Compa's chest, hugging her as best he could and nuzzling her. "I missed you! Working with Linda is the worst! She just doesn't have your charm!" Compa just giggled and hugged him back, seemingly very happy that there was a giant rat hugging and cuddling her.

"Hey, rat, keep this up and I'll shove a carrot up your ass next time." Linda scoffed, her hair damp from a recent shower and wearing short and a light t-shirt over her body. "Huh?" Linda blinked as she looked at Neptune. "Haven't seen you before."

"I'm Neptune..." Neptune trailed off as Linda tried to pronounce her name and was struggling with it. "You can call me Nep, Nep-ko, Neppy, Nep Nep, Nepsy or something else. I know my name's hard to say." She wasn't sure why her name was pronounced the way it was, but that was just how it was.

"Nep, huh?" Linda smirked at her. "Well, that's a lot easier to say."

"So, uh..." Neptune looked at Warechu and Compa as they walked off with Warechu walking besides Compa. "...What's up with them?" She remembered that the Warechu of her world had the largest crush possible on Compa while the Warechu of Plutia's world had never developed that crush. Then again, Compa had only been five years old at the time. 'I wonder if he's even still alive, do rats live very long?'

"Huh?" Linda looked at Warechu and Compa. "They came to the settlement at the same time, apparently they're pretty close."

"...How close are we talking?" Neptune's voice was a little strained as she asked Linda who shrugged at her.

"Close enough that he helps her get ready for bed some nights since she has trouble getting in and out of her clothes." Linda wondered why Neptune suddenly face-planted into the ground. "Are you okay?"

"Just... Kind of surprised." Neptune muttered and wondered if there was something more there. Sure, it wasn't her Compa, and it really wasn't any of her business, but the thought of the two of them being that close felt... Wrong. 'Then again, this whole world feels wrong if IF has scars and Compa's missing her hands.'

Looking around the food hall, Neptune could see several long tables spread out with chairs around them. 'Kind of looks like that school cafeteria I once walked into by accident when I first became the CPU and got hungry on a walk.' Neptune giggled softly, that had been pretty embarrassing when she had to ask for directions back to the Basilicom. Some people thought she had a parent that worked at the Basilicom instead of her being the CPU. Neptune idly wondered what happened to some of those kids before shrugging, it wasn't too important at the moment.

"What? Surprised we have a meal hall?" Linda asked, scoffing as Neptune nodded. "This place can barely sustain us as it is, if everyone had to cook their own meals we'd be short on power and water constantly."

"I guess..." Neptune wondered why the technology out here was so... Limited. Whenever there was a new city or town that popped up in one of their nations, the CPUs always made their ways out to the new city or town to make sure that everything was working right and if they needed anything to make their lives easier. "Um..."

"Oh, right, never told you my name." Linda muttered. "Name's Linda, jack of all trades farm hand. I fix the machines, take care of the crops and help the boss lady out when she needs it. Don't ask me to take care of kids or animals though, I suck at that."

"Linda, huh?" Neptune had a confused look on her face. "Huh, I don't know why, but I feel like I'd know you if you had a different name."

"Well, whatever," Linda shrugged and jerked her hand over her shoulder. "Come on, let's get some grub, I'm starving."

"Ah, sure." Neptune smiled and followed Linda. She may have felt like she knew the girl from somewhere, but at least this Linda seemed nice enough.

After getting some mashed potatoes, carrots and lettuce and something to drink, Neptune walked around until she found an open spot at a table. "Yum! Time to eat!" She smiled and dug into the food.

"No way!" IF's voice was heard and Neptune turned her head to look at the table behind her where Chrome, IF, Linda and Filyn were sitting at. "You can't be serious, Chrome!"

"Unfortunately, I am." Chrome sighed softly. "We need new parts for the coolants and the only place we can look for them is in the Northern City."

IF snarled at her. "And risk running into that bitch of a CPU again?" She couldn't believe that Chrome would do this. Sure, if the crops went bad they would all suffer, but if something happened to Chrome, they would all suffer even worse!

After taking a few bites of her eggplant slice, Chrome gave the burned girl a serious look. "You think that I want to risk it? Besides, the CPU will probably be busy with whatever catches her fancy and we're not going to be going too far into the city. The boats are in, so the trip won't take too long and I'll call Artisan ahead of time to have her find the parts we need so we can just go there, get the parts we need, do some quick trading and get back here."

"That's still going to take almost two weeks round trip." IF grumbled, but she conceded the point. "But I'm coming with."

"No way," Chrome shook her head, "I know you're strong, but I've been watching you, IF, you can't even help in the fields because of how low your stamina is. Your skin cracks when it gets hot and you have to be careful with what you lift."

IF winced and deflated. "But I can help. At least let me come with, we need new clothes around here for everyone."

"Among other things," Chrome muttered softly. "Fine, you can come with if you want, maybe taking a boat trip will do you some good with the water that will splash all over you."

"I'm coming too!" Filyn suddenly yelled from her spot next to Chrome and crossed her arms over her chest. "You aren't leaving me behind."

"Filyn..." Chrome sighed softly and shook her head before kneeling so she could look the small girl in the eye. "Please, I don't want you to go with, because I don't want anything to happen to you."

The girl narrowed her uncovered eye and pouted. "But Chromey! I already lost Poofy! I don't want to lose you too!" She knew Poofy would probably be okay, but she still didn't like the fact that Poofy was gone.

Chrome sighed and hung her head. "Filyn... Fine, you can come with." Filyn gasped and her eye lit up before she hugged Chrome, thanking her over and over again.

"You gave in quick." IF smirked at Chrome, who rolled her eyes while hugging Filyn.

"I'd rather have her with me so I know where she's at than have her sneak on board and not be prepared for it." Chrome answered as she broke the hug with Filyn. "Or worse, go the wrong way and get lost and almost eaten by a giant dragon again." She smirked as Filyn blushed and looked down. "Alright, so that's three... Who else..?"

"I'm coming too!" Compa spoke up as she walked up to the group while holding a tray that had all her food on it. Sitting down with Warechu next to her, Compa smiled as IF and Warechu helped her set her tray down. "Thank you. Anyway, we need medical supplies and I know which ones we need."

Chrome didn't even bother arguing and looked at Warechu. "Well?"

"...I don't know if I want to go with, if we run into the CPU, who knows what she'll do to us." Warechu shivered before stiffening as he felt something cold and metal touch his cheek. Turning, he saw Compa smiling at him sadly. "Compa?"

"Won't you please help us?" Compa leaned in and gave him a small kiss on the forehead. "Please, Warechu?"

Chrome rolled her eyes as Warechu stood straight up and proclaimed he'd do anything for Compa. It wasn't her place to judge the two of them and if they got along, who was she to say no? "So is that it?"

"No."

Chrome blinked and turned her head to see Neptune standing there. "You want to come with?"

"That's right." Neptune nodded at her. "...You don't even need to bring me back. I have things I need to do there."

Chrome shrugged, if it was a one-way trip at least she wouldn't have to deal with this girl at all. "Fine, we can give you a lift that way." She looked at Linda, who was ignoring everything while eating. "Linda!"

"MMMPH?!" Linda choked on the food for a moment before coughing and turning to look at Chrome. "Boss Lady?"

"Get ready, you're coming with tomorrow as well."

"Aw man!" Linda groaned and hung her head. "I get seasick, you know that!"

Chrome smirked at her. "Tough it out, you're the only one who knows what we need to fix the coolant units." That was a lie, she knew how to do it too, but there was no need to tell Linda that, the girl took pride in the fact that she was pretty good at mechanical stuff.

"Fine, fine..." Linda grumbled as she ate while other people came into the dining hall.

"Ah! Chrome!" A new voice spoke up and Chrome turned to see a small girl with bright blue hair, green eyes and a bunny costume ran up to Chrome. "Gust is done looking at the phone you gave her. It can call again, but Gust is confused." She pulled out a large cell phone from her pocket and gave it to Chrome. "The inside was very advanced, more circuits and wires than Gust has ever seen before."

"Ah," Chrome nodded and turned the phone on. "Well, now that it's working again, let's see just what's on here." Chrome touched the screen and started pressing icons. "Hmm? There's two contacts? Basilicom and Nepgear?"

"OH!" Neptune's eyes widened and waved her arms. "That's my phone! I was looking for it!" She stopped waving at the looks of anger being directed at her. "Um... Why is everyone looking at me like I ate the last pudding in the fridge that they were saving for themselves?"

"Basilicom?!" IF yelled and stood. "You're a spy for the CPU, aren't you!?" Snarling, she pulled out her katars. "I bet you're here to find out all you can so that you can tell the CPU where to strike."

Linda sneered as she pulled out a metal pipe and stood up. "News flash, even if you're buddy buddy with the CPU, it won't save you from her in the future when she decides you're expendable."

"What?!" Neptune jumped back and shook her head while extending her arms and waving them up and down. "No! No! My sister made that phone so I could call her in case I get lost in another dimension again!"

Suddenly the anger on everyone's faces turned to confusion.

"Um... I wasn't trying to keep it a secret, it just kind of never came up." Neptune giggled nervously.

Chrome sighed and took the phone before pocketing it. "We'll talk about this later. IF, Linda, both of you, calm down and eat your meals. Neptune, follow me, we need to talk."

Neptune nodded and followed after her, her food mostly uneaten.

"Hmm, if no one's going to eat that, Gust will." The bunny girl said as she sat where Neptune was and started to eat. "No point in letting good food go to waste."

(-)

Standing outside the dining hall, Chrome gave Neptune a stern look. "Why didn't you tell me that this was your phone?"

"I didn't know I had lost it." Neptune said to her. "I woke up naked on a bed and you gave me lewd panties!" She pointed at Chrome, who felt her eye twitching from that.

"Okay, enough about that, but what's this about another dimension again?" Chrome asked her.

"I told you, I'm Planeptune's CPU, at least in my world I am." Neptune answered her, "and my sister, my CPU Candidate, Nepgear, made that phone for me because apparently I keep getting lost in other dimensions and I can use it to call her." She blinked as Chrome suddenly held her phone out to her. "Um..."

"Prove it. Call her right now." Chrome watched as Neptune took the phone from her. "Just so you know, if this is some sort of trap to hurt any of us here, I'll kill you where you stand."

Neptune gulped and pressed the number for Nepgear's phone. "Well, let me just..."

_"There is no signal, try again later."_

"Try again later..." Neptune sighed and hung her head. "I guess I can't call across dimensions right now."

"...You really are serious, huh?" Chrome asked softly, getting a nod from Neptune. "Alright. I'll tell you what," Neptune looked up at her, "you'll come with tomorrow, but I want you to stay out of sight. I doubt either IF or Linda will trust you after knowing that about your phone."

Neptune nodded. "Um, can I ask you something?" Chrome nodded, "how come everything seems so..."

"Primitive?" Chrome asked, getting a nod from Neptune. She sighed and shook her head. "More like simple and efficient. This is a settlement of people trying to live away from the CPU and as such our lives are more difficult because of it."

"Oh." Neptune said softly, not really sure how to answer that.

"We have running water for sinks, showers and toilets among other stuff." Chrome shrugged at her. "We're working on modernizing stuff, but it takes time."

"Right." Neptune nodded, she could understand. After all, even Planeptune in her world hadn't always been as advanced as it was in the current age.

"Is that all then?" Chrome asked, getting a nod from Neptune. "Come on, let's get some food." Chrome would have to deal with Linda and IF on her own, but at least she didn't think Neptune was a spy of some sort.

Sadly for Neptune, by the time she got back, most of the food had been taken and even the food she was going to eat was gone.

Fortunately, there was food left.

Sadly for Neptune, it was just eggplants.

(-)

A little bit later...

IF sighed as she entered her small apartment and dropped her jacket off on the couch and kicked her shoes off before wandering into her bedroom and flopping face first onto her large bed. There was only her bedroom, the large living room with a television in it and a bathroom. There was a small refrigerator in her room that had drinks and her ointments for her burns, but that was it. "Lousy..." She hissed as pain ran up her back. "Fuuuuck!"

When she felt a hand push up her shirt before another hand put something cool on her back, she sighed in relief. "Nnngh..." She turned her head to look at the person with gratitude. "Thanks, Linda."

Linda gave her a small smile and pushed IF's shirt up and off of her while rubbing her back down with IF's medicated lotion. "Why do you want to go with? You could just stay here."

"...I'm tired of being here all the time. I want to at least see new places, even if it will just be a bunch of water and coast lines." IF answered her.

"...Are you tired of me?" Linda asked the topless girl as she rubbed the various burns and scars with the ointment.

IF turned her body and looked at Linda. "If anything, I should ask you that. I just want to travel, but I'm not tired of you." She sighed as she sat up and looked down at herself. "I hate this..." She yelped as Linda's hands went over her small chest. "Hey!" IF lightly protested and shivered as her chest was rubbed.

"You're still badly burned, Iffy." Linda whispered to her. "No matter how much you've recovered or the treatments you've gotten have fixed you up, you're still hurting badly."

IF nodded and sighed. "Fine, rub me down fully then."

As Linda rubbed and massaged her body, IF found herself relaxing and falling asleep, even as she was stripped out of all of her clothes.

Linda sighed as she continued to rub IF's burned skin down. She didn't know why she had taken a shine to the burned girl when she had seen her, maybe it was the fact that despite the pain she was in, she was trying to help out on the farm as best she could, or maybe it was just the attitude that IF had, Linda could certainly respect someone who didn't want any pity for her condition.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Compa sighed as she got out of the shower. Dinner had been interesting after the whole debacle with Neptune and her phone. 'Is Nep Nep a bad guy? But she seems so nice.' Then again, Compa knew of some people who worked for the CPU that were really nice and cheerful as a front.

_"Miss Compa! Look! I made you this!"_

_"Miss Compa! Help! She's puking blood!"_

_"Miss Compa! Thank you! My sister would have died without you."_

Compa felt her lips trembling as she dried herself off with the towels. "I'm so sorry you two, I wish I could have helped you some more." She looked at the hooks that were in place of her arms and sighed heavily. "But now I can barely help anyone."

After drying off, she walked out of the shower room, her towel still wrapped around her and into the changing area where her bra and panties were set up in such a way that it would be easy for her to get them on. As she got her bra and panties on, Compa sighed sadly. They weren't fancy or cute clothes like she had liked when she was living in Lowee City. Grimacing as she felt that her bra was on awkwardly, Compa shook her head and grabbed a robe that had been left out for her and slipped it on before walking out of the changing area.

"Compa," Gust, who had been sitting on the couch, nodded to Compa. "If you're done, Gust will..."

"Can you help me adjust my bra first?" Compa asked and sat down next to her. She sighed in relief as Gust did just that. "Thanks, it's hard to get that on by myself."

"Gust figures," the blue-haired bunny girl smiled at her. "Do you want your arms off?" Compa nodded and shimmied so that the robe would slide down her shoulders and Gust went to work unclasping and removing Compa's false arms. "At least they don't rust, huh?" Gust asked, smiling as she loosened one of the arms up and removed it. She couldn't help but look at the stumps that made up the remains of her real arms, her right one went all the way down to her elbow while her left arm was only slightly past the shoulder.

"Thanks." Compa smiled as Gust helped her get her robe back up over her shoulders. "I'm going to go to bed now."

"Sleep well." Gust said as Compa walked to her room and went inside. While Compa's apartment had been adjusted so that she could live in it more easily, it didn't mean that the girl didn't have troubles. Namely that she needed someone to come over to help her with her arms when she wanted them removed or attached. "Why would that monster hurt Compa so much? Compa was just a nurse and..." Gust bit her lip as the memory of when Compa's arms had been removed started to fill her mind. She shook her head. "No, no! Gust doesn't want to remember." After making sure that the prosthetic arms were placed on the couch, Gust got up and left the apartment for her own small apartment.

To Be Continued...

* * *

Oh hey, it's Gust. Why blue hair? ...Why not?

I think I'll just quietly slink away now that everyone's sharpening their weapons to come after me for what I did to Compa.


	4. Flames and Flashbacks

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 3

Stretching as she woke up at her usual time, Chrome sat up in bed and looked to the side where a lump was under the blankets and smiled as she moved the blankets to the side and saw Filyn in pajamas sleeping next to her. Gently running a hand through her hair, Chrome enjoyed the way that Filyn way Filyn reacted and sighed before rolling over onto her back, letting Chrome see the little girl's face without the eye-patch and she sighed heavily.

Where Filyn should have had two closed eyelids, there was nothing there. Sure, there was something in the socket, to prevent diseases and infection from getting in, but there was no eye or even eye-lid there.

_"You seem to really care for her, huh? Sure, you can have her back."_

_"CHROMEY! AAAAAIIIEEEEE! IT HURTS!"_

_"DON'T!"_

_"Whoops! Sorry, I guess I pushed too hard with my thumb, now she's a one-eyed wonder."_

Chrome growled at the memory of the bitch who took Filyn's eye. 'Though it seems like it was so traumatic for her that she forgot who she really was.' Really, Chrome was thankful that Filyn didn't remember the past, even if it was better back then, seeing what happened to Gamworld would probably cause her sister permanent mental anguish. Running a hand through her silver hair, Chrome got up and got dressed before she got too angry and did something stupid.

As she exited her apartment, she looked on in surprise as Neptune was sitting outside her door, lightly dozing. "...You wanted to see me, huh?"

Neptune looked up at her tiredly. "I couldn't sleep much." She yawned and stood up, stretching.

"You'll crash pretty hard later." Chrome advised her, speaking from experience. Neptune shrugged and Chrome shook her head. "So what's wrong?"

"...What happened to Compa's arms?" Neptune asked Chrome.

"That's not my place to say." Chrome answered her. "Compa doesn't like talking about it and that's all there is to it. If you're a CPU from another reality like you say you are, just stay out of our business. I'll drop you off in Lowee City in a few days and then we'll never need to speak to each other again."

"Fiiiine." Neptune sighed. "So what's on the agenda then?"

"Gathering up vegetables so we can sell them to the Northern City, meet up with Artisan to get parts and supplies we need and then leave." Chrome answered her. "I'd rather not stay there any longer than I have to."

"Okay..." Neptune nodded. "You know, it would be pretty boring to cover everything, can we just skip straight to the boat ride?"

(-)

Many hours later...

"Thanks, author!" Neptune yelled cheerfully while people looked at her like she was crazy.

"Why do I feel like we skipped hours all at once and have everything done already?" Chrome asked no one in particular as she looked around and couldn't see any reason why. Everyone who was going to Lowee City was on the boat, the supplies were stocked up and everyone had their clothes packed.

"Oh, don't worry about it." Neptune smiled cheerfully at her. "Just accept it as part of my awesome main character perks and roll with it."

"I guess." Chrome shrugged as the boat took off. "Well, we have a few days, hope you don't get seasick."

"Nah, I don't." Neptune smiled and moved around on the boat. "I'm just hoping that we don't have a bunch of random encounters like in all those RPGs when you have a boat.

"Don't most games of that type put enemies up on the screen so players can see them and avoid them if they want to these days?" Chrome asked, getting a nod from Neptune. "Oh well, have fun." She walked off, leaving Neptune by herself.

Neptune was grateful the boat wasn't a sailboat, but was rather a motorized boat and had no problem getting to a decent speed as it went around the continent. "...I think I need to see a map of this world." Neptune muttered and walked to the captain's cabin.

(-)

In the captain's cabin, Neptune stared in shock at the map that she had been given.

Not only was this world completely messed up in the normal sense, but the nations were way out of position!

Lowee to the South? Leanbox to the West? Planeptune to the North? The only nation that hadn't moved was Lastation as it was to the East. But each of the land masses were completely... WEIRD!

Lowee was almost as big as Gamindustri's Lowee and Lastation put together! What was worse was that most of it was mountains, forests or volcanoes that made up the majority of the continent with only the Northern and Southern ends being even remotely inhabitable.

"And there's the Gem Dragon area." Chrome pointed to the center of the map. "I've dealt with them before, they walk on all four legs and are pretty vicious. There never seems to be too many of them, but we should be thankful, they know all sorts of magic attacks, have breath attacks and have tons of HP to go along with it."

Neptune wasn't even looking at that. She looked at what was supposed to be Planeptune and tilted her head as the map seemed to paint it as a giant skull. "Is this thing accurate?" She asked and looked at where Leanbox was and saw that it was a bit smaller than the Leanbox that she knew and it looked like there were a bunch of segments that surrounded what looked like a giant castle in the center. She looked over to Lastation and saw that it looked to be about the same size as the Lastation she knew, but the map only listed cities and there was no information about the topography of the area.

"As accurate as can be, I suppose." Chrome muttered as she looked at the different nations. "Thing is, other than Lowee, no one's ever gotten away from their nation's CPU."

"...I'm almost afraid to ask why." Neptune wondered if the CPU of Lowee was Blanc and if Blanc was the CPU...

'Just why do you make everyone fear you?' Neptune thought to herself.

(-)

"Mind if I sit here?"

Looking up from where she was sitting, Compa, who was wearing a bikini bottom and a loose shirt, smiled as she saw IF, who was wearing unbuckled short shorts that showed off hints of her blue bikini bottoms, a blue bikini top over her small chest and sandals and nodded. "Sure thing, Iffy." She knew IF was sensitive about the burns and scars on her body, but since everyone on the boat knew better than to make a big deal about it, IF decided to wear clothing that exposed a lot of her skin, which was a mess of burns and scars.

"Where's your boyfriend?" IF asked as she sat on the deck chair next to Compa, who blushed softly at the statement.

"Iffy!" Compa pouted at her. "Just because he really likes me doesn't mean that he's my boyfriend. We're not even the same species." Not that it stopped the rumors around the settlement about her and Warechu at night. Compa didn't pay them much attention. Warechu helped her out a lot and she helped him out as well, so as far as she was concerned they were super close because of it.

"You're the only one that he's really friendly with." IF pointed out. True, Warechu wasn't MEAN or anything, but it really felt like he didn't care much about anyone other than Compa and only tolerated everyone else.

"What about you, Iffy?" Compa asked her friend. "Aren't you and Linda close?"

"She's my roommate." IF answered, almost automatically. "She rubs me down with my healing lotions so I can sleep at night and help around the place during the day, but we're not really that close."

"Oh." Compa nodded and leaned back in her chair. "So where are the others anyway?"

"Filyn's..." IF trailed off as Filyn ran past with Gust trying to keep her from falling overboard. "Right there, so is Gust. Linda and Warechu are working in the hot areas of the ship and I can't be in there."

Compa looked at IF as she trembled. "Iffy, no one blames you, you can't do anything after you got caught in that fire." She sighed as IF twitched in anger. "Iffy, you don't know that it was the CPU that caused the guild to get caught on fire."

"But why me? Why did I survive?" IF's green eyes started to water up as her mind drifted back to that fateful day.

*Flash*

It was so sudden, one moment IF was laughing with her friends at the guild and the next the whole place was on fire and all the windows and doors got covered, preventing any escape.

"Iffy!" A busty girl with red hair smiled at her sadly, she was sweating as the fires raged around them. "If only one of us can survive..."

"Marvy?" IF coughed as smoke started to enter her lungs before she found herself doused in a bucket of hot water and pushed out of the ring of fire that consumed her friend. "MAR-GLUB-VY!"

(-)

Hours later...

"Such a tragedy..." The CPU of Lowee shook her head as she looked over the wreckage of the guild. "Hmm?" She walked over to where there was a hand that was horribly burned but still moving. "Someone's alive?" Grabbing the hand, she pulled up and saw a person who's skin was burned to the point that it almost looked black, the hair was missing, the clothes were burned off, but there was some breathing. "Impressive, but if you were part of the guild, it's your own fault for being in there." She said and let go of the burned body's hand before turning and walking off. Looking at the firefighters, she scoffed. "Why did I bring you with again? Oh right, to make sure that the fire didn't spread." Putting a hand over her mouth, she started to giggled like a maniac. "Ah! That's so funny."

"My Lady?" One of the firefighters who was looking at the ground spoke up. "What shall we do now?"

"Clean up this mess, dispose of the bodies, whatever, I don't care." The CPU scoffed and walked off. "Just have it gone by next week."

On the pile of debris, IF managed to open an eyelid as it cracked apart. While she had heard everything the CPU had said, the first things she saw was several bodies that were charred remains of the people in the guild.

If her eyes could have produced tears, IF would have been crying at that moment.

*End Flashback*

"Marvy... Cyberconnect2... Falcom..." IF trembled as she whispered the names of her friends that were all confirmed to have perished in that fire. "Why? How? Why them? What did we do to the CPU to make her do that to us?"

Compa had no answer for her. She knew that there was no proof that the CPU of Lowee had done that to IF, but it was the only thing that made sense to anyone who heard the story.

(-)

Meanwhile in Lowee City...

Walking through her Basilicom, the CPU of Lowee had a mild expression on her face as she walked past the staff, all of whom were kneeling and looking down as she passed through. They all knew the penalty for not kneeling and looking down without the CPU's permission.

A breeze drifted through the Basilicom, causing her white, short dress to flutter upwards, revealing her blue frilly panties while the blue bow that was attached to the hair on the back of her head fluttered in the wind. "Nice day," she commented softly, as she moved some of her blue hair out of her face, her blue eyes revealing nothing but a calm and cool demeanor. "I wonder where those two are at." She muttered to herself as she turned a corner and narrowed her eyes as she saw a familiar looking maid who had her back turned to her and wasn't kneeling and looking down. "You, maid," she said as the brown-haired maid turned to look at her, only to get a strong kick to the back of her knees, causing the poor maid to cry out in pain as she fell to her hands and knees. "Did I tell you that you could stand in my presence?" She asked, her eyes becoming cold as she lifted her leg up and stomped on the maid's head, pushing down on it and forcing the older-looking woman to the floor completely.

"Lady Blanc!" The maid yelled out in pain, "please forgive this worthless maid for not realizing that you were in the room. I was so concerned with cleaning that I did not notice you!" She sobbed out, groaning as she felt the pressure on her skull increase.

"You helped those two little brats escape again, didn't you?" Blanc asked, her voice still as soft as ever.

"Lady Blanc, please!" The maid sobbed more, "I do not mean to presume anything, but for the sake of those children, please let them enjoy being children a little longer, please!? I beg of you."

Blanc sighed and lifted her foot off of the maid's head. "I suppose allowing them to run around for a few days isn't the worst thing I could do." A small smirk came to her face as she started to chuckle. "After all, the best way to induce anger and despair is to let them feel hope before ripping it all away from them."

As Blanc walked off, laughing softly, yet sinisterly, the maid known as Financier could only curl into a ball and cry softly. "Rom... Ram... I'm so sorry you two, if only there was something more I could do for you."

Even if they managed to get out of the city, which wasn't hard, they would have to survive the severe jungles and mountains of Lowee, which was incredibly hard. And even if they found the path to safely cross Lowee and actually got to the refugee encampment in the South, Financier knew that they would be rejected and kicked out.

'Such cruel fates for CPU Candidates, why is this world like this?' She sobbed to herself, unable to stop her tears from flowing.

(-)

In her room, Blanc yawned and walked over to her bed before flopping onto it and rolling over onto her back. "Hmm... Ram is too passive, no matter what I try, she doesn't seem to feel anything but fear, that's no good." A grin slowly came to her face. "Rom, on the other hand..." She chuckled darkly. The elder of her twin younger sisters would make for a great CPU...

...If she survived after obtaining her power that is.

Blanc chuckled softly as she twirled a finger through her blue hair. "That might be what's needed to push little Ram over the edge. I wonder which one will be more... Impressive." She scoffed to herself. "Hopefully they'll be better than my elder sister was."

"The fate of a CPU Candidate is cruel indeed," Blanc muttered, remembering when she was a CPU Candidate and screaming and crying like a pathetic cowardly crybaby when she had found out the truth. "Oh well, Rom and Ram will learn like I did that it's just the way things are here."

Blanc chuckled before throwing a hand over her eyes and laughing like a crazy person. Every single person who heard it suddenly shivered in absolute terror. Whenever Blanc laughed like that, bad things followed not long afterwords.

To be continued...

* * *

No, Blanc isn't in perma-HDD mode. Her early concept artwork has her with blue hair, a bow on the back of her head and a dark coat. Since Lowee isn't winter-based but summer based in Gamworld, she wouldn't wear a coat.


	5. Lowee

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

As some of you have figured out already, yes, this story was inspired by "Into the Abyss" by Blade of Justice. Sadly the story went unfinished and never left Lowee.

* * *

Chapter 4

Days later...

Stretching as she got off of the boat, Neptune looked around the harbor and saw the large city just beyond it. "PHEW!" She smiled as she got done stretching. "Being on a boat for five days kind of sucks." She tilted her head as she looked at the city some more. "Huh, so the main city is by the coast in this world?" Neptune muttered softly and looked out into the ocean where there were plenty of islands that were visible, but pretty far away. "Fishing islands or where there's fruits?"

"Yes." Linda answered her. "Hey, if you don't mind, you can either stick around and help us or get lost. You don't need to hang around us anymore, do ya?"

"Guess not, no." Neptune smiled at her. "Well, Linda, this is where we part, huh?"

"Tch," Linda had an uneasy look on her face as she looked at Neptune. The small girl was a bit... Weird and annoying with her comments, but she seemed like a genuinely good person, which was a rarity in the world. "Hey, um... Nep...tune?"

"Hmm?" Neptune looked at her. "What is it?"

"Take care, okay?" Linda's voice was soft. "Don't think I care about you or anything, but Filyn, IF and Compa took a liking to you and I'd hate to hear that you died and have to tell them."

Neptune blinked a few times and almost made a joke about Linda being a Tsundere but held back and just nodded. "Sure. You take care too. If you're not careful, everyone will think you're some sort of underling or something."

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Linda yelled and Neptune's eyes widened in surprise as she realized just who Linda was. "...What?"

"I THOUGHT you looked familiar!" Neptune slapped her fist into her open hand. "You're pretty popular with the fanbase, I'm surprised that you haven't been in more games. Oh well, later!" She turned and ran off, waving her goodbyes.

"Is she gone?" Chrome asked as she came up upon Linda, who turned and nodded. "Okay, good. Let's get this stuff unloaded and do some trading." She looked at the city and grimaced. "The last thing we need is that CPU finding out that we're here."

"Hey, Chromey!" Filyn spoke up and waved at her. "I wanna go get some stuff."

"Make it quick." Chrome said to her and nodded to IF, Gust and Compa. "Don't go getting lost, you know you have trouble judging distances."

"Hmph!" The little girl crossed her arms as her light jacket fluttered in the breeze. "I'm not going to get lost, Chromey."

"I hope not." Chrome said softly as she gave Filyn a small smile.

(-)

As she walked through the city, Neptune couldn't help but stare at the buildings. While the buildings on the main roads were metal and fancy looking, the ones that were in the more residential areas were brick and mortar and all looked rather cheap and unfeeling compared to what she was used to seeing in Lowee. 'Heck, even Lonely Heart's apartment buildings have more feeling than these.' They were square, stacked up high and looked almost... Old.

As she turned a corner, she saw graffiti all over the walls. "Death to CPUs?" She stared at that. "...Is Rei doing things in this world as well?" After all, Rei Ryghts had tried to get rid of her in a misguided attempt to rid the Hyperdimension of CPUs. "Then again, maybe Rei's the reason that things are screwed up here." After all, if the oldest being in Plutia's Gamindustri was around in this world at one time, there was a good chance that she was the reason that things seemed so messed up.

"Well, better a messed up world than a world where you have to do lewd things for shares." Neptune giggled and blushed at the thought of doing stuff like that and shook her head. While she thought about that stuff from time to time, she didn't think she could go through with doing lewd things with others.

Why, head pats were so lewd that they had to be censored on television!

Walking down the street aimlessly, Neptune eventually ended up in an outdoor market of some sort with lots of people buying and selling stuff at various tables. "Huh? What's going on?"

"Don't you know?" An old man asked and Neptune turned to look at him. "It's the end of the season sales on all sorts of stuff. Everyone's getting rid of crap they gathered over the past year that they don't need anymore and are selling it to people who want it."

"Oh." Neptune nodded, that seemed rather normal, even if there was a lot of people there. "So this is once a year?"

"The big one like this, yeah." The man nodded at her. "There's markets that pop up every week in this corner, but there's not much compared to this. Why, the CPU could walk through here and no one would notice until she got mad or something." The man laughed and shivered, as did several people who were nearby and all of them quickly looked around in fear before calming down as they didn't see the CPU in the crowd or hear anyone crying out in pain.

Neptune nodded and thanked the man before walking through the crowds. She doubted her credits would be good here anyway, but she wanted to see what she could see.

"Hey! Come on!" A familiar voice had Neptune suddenly stop, spin to the East and look as she tried to find the source of that voice. "If we hurry we can get some of the good stuff and get back to our hiding spot before we're noticed."

"Was that Ram?" Neptune asked herself and made her way to the East, squeezing past some people. "Woah! Wide load!" She ducked under someone who was rather... Large and had a large rear end to go with it.

After avoiding a close encounter of the smelly kind, Neptune continued to weave through the crowds before she finally ended up in an alley of some sort. "Phew! That's a lot of people!" Walking forward, she noticed that there were a lot of metal trash cans on the ground, some trash around them and various graffiti along the walls.

"The state of the nation reflects on their CPU. The more downtrodden it seems, the worse the CPU is." Neptune muttered softly, remembering Histoire's lessons on how to be a proper CPU. Neptune mentally sighed as she thought about Histoire. While she really did care for the fairy, there were times she wanted to give Histoire a good smack. "Sorry, Histy, I know you do your best and I'm not easy to work with, but you make me so mad sometimes."

That was probably why Kurome had been able to brainwash her. "Urgh, this stinks worse than the bathroom when I had that spoiled milk." And Neptune wasn't talking about the smell in the alleyway either.

After getting to the end of the alleyway, Neptune sighed as she didn't see either Ram or Rom. "I guess I misheard." She turned around and was about to leave when something poked her in the back hard.

"Who the hell are you?" Rom's voice was heard. "Did Blanc send you? Answer me."

"Uh..." Neptune sweat-dropped heavily. "Can I turn around and look at you please? Pretty please? You sound pretty angry."

"Rom..." Neptune could have sworn that sounded like Ram, but the tone was way too meek for the girl that she knew. "Please? Maybe she's not..?"

"You said it yourself, Ram," Rom's voice was heard, "someone was following us. If not for your invisibility spell, we would have been seen."

"Well, that explains why I didn't see you after I walked into the alley." Neptune chirped up happily, until she was poked hard in the back. "Owwies!"

"So what did Blanc promise you?" Rom asked, anger seeping into her voice. "Power? Money? I'll tell you this, as soon as you give her what she wants she'll betray you, so just leave the city and never come back, you'll be safer that way."

Neptune scratched her cheek. "Well, if you want to know..." The next thing that happened had both Rom and Ram staring in shock as Neptune suddenly ducked into a low crouching position while spinning around to face them before she stood up and grabbed the staff that was in Rom's hand and with a twist, she disarmed Rom and pulled the staff away from her. "Here's a tip, if you're going to hold a magic staff like a spear, make sure you know how to use a spear." She giggled at the look Rom was giving her. "Okay..." Neptune trailed off as she got a good look at Rom and Ram.

Both girls had brown hair and Rom's hair was still short while Ram's hair was still long and both had blue eyes. Rom, however, had a stern look on her face while Ram had a timid, scared look on hers. "Huh, so you two swapped personalities in this world, huh?" Neptune muttered to herself, causing both girls to blink in confusion. "Never mind." She rubbed the back of her head and giggled. One thing that confused her was the clothing the two were wearing, their personalities being swapped wasn't the only thing that was different between this world and hers.

Rom was wearing a blue tube top over her breasts, which Neptune could see were actually there and while they weren't big at all, the mere fact that Rom, despite the fact that she looked like she was younger than Neptune, had a budding chest that was bigger than Blanc's chest almost made her tear up. 'Calm down, Neptune, just because she has boobs doesn't mean a thing, after all, she could be like Uni and get flatter when she transforms.' Neptune thought to herself and continued to look the girls over. Rom's pants were... Small and Neptune could actually see hints of Rom's underwear from under her short shorts. The girl was wearing sandals around her feet that were wrapped around her feet and ankles.

Ram, however, was wearing boots on her feet with some sort of stretchy, tight pants that molded to her legs completely. 'Didn't Nepgear say those were Yoga pants?' She remembered her sister wearing those pants around the Basilicom one day without a skirt on and everyone, including Neptune and Histoire, had to stop what they were doing and stare whenever Nepgear bent over to pick stuff up. After a few accidents involving stairs and knives, both Neptune and Histoire had forbidden Nepgear from wearing Yoga pants unless she had a skirt on over them. 'Booty of mass distraction indeed.'

Ram was wearing what looked like a halter top and a small jacket over her shoulders that left her belly exposed. And from what Neptune could see, Ram's chest was still as small in this world as it was in her own world.

"So, uh..." Neptune gave them a slightly confused look. "What's wrong with you two?"

"Tch..." Rom snarled at her and turned to walk away and Neptune could see that Rom's shorts actually rode up into her butt a bit, showing off the bottom portion of her butt and they were so small in the back that Neptune could see the top crack of Rom's butt from behind. "Let's go, Ram." She walked off in a huff.

"Um..." Ram fidgeted and looked at Neptune. "I'm sorry." She bowed to Neptune and ran off after her sister.

"...What's with this world?" Neptune asked no one in particular, wondering why the twins were not only acting that way, but why they were dressing so... Lewd. "...Also, Blanc's the CPU here, huh?" She hung her head and sighed softly. "Does this mean that there's a Vert and Noire here too? Is Planeptune ruled by Uzume, Plutie or me?" Neptune wondered why she was thinking there might have been other Planeptune CPUs, but she couldn't recall. There was one that she knew was from just before her, but she couldn't recall the name of that CPU off the top of her head.

Neptune wasn't sure what was up with this world.

But she knew that she didn't like it.

(-)

"Rom!" Ram called out as she ran after her sister. "Are you okay?"

"Is she following us?" Rom asked, getting a shake of Ram's head. "Good." Rom took a deep breath and suddenly punched a nearby brick wall. "FUCK! That was scary!"

"Rom?" Ram asked her. "Are you okay?"

"NO!" Rom trembled and pounded on the wall a few times. "That... Who was that!? Why does she talk like she knows us?! How did she disarm me like that?!"

Ram bit her cheek softly. Not even Blanc had been able to disarm Rom when she tried, but considering it was Blanc, it didn't matter as there was nothing that the two of them could do about Blanc when she was in one of her moods. "Do you think she was hired by Blanc?"

Rom trembled. If that girl had been hired by Blanc and with how easy it was for that girl to disarm her...

Ram watched as Rom fought the urge to cry. "Rom... It's okay..." She sighed as Rom pulled herself away from the wall and stormed off. "Please Rom... Don't bottle it up... I don't like seeing you suffer." She whimpered as she watched her twin walk off. 'Why? Why is Blanc so mean to us? Why do all the people treat us like we're some kind of monsters?' There were a few people who were kind to them, but even then, there was tension under the surface.

'Someone, please... Please tell us why.'

To Be Continued...

* * *

Well, you were all wondering about Rom and Ram, there you go, they're alive.

The whole "head pats are too lewd" thing is a swipe at Nintendo for censoring Fire Emblem Fates in the West by removing a mini game where you gave teammates head pats, and the reasoning given was basically "too lewd for Western audiences". Since they're in Lowee right now, I thought it was appropriate to do that.


	6. Park

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

I'm bored. Have another chapter.

* * *

Chapter 5

"Ah, Chrome!" A soft voice spoke up and Chrome looked to see a familiar face walking towards her.

"Artisan, I'm glad you could make it." Chrome nodded as she looked at the girl. Artisan was wearing black shoes and stockings that went up half-way up her thighs and were connected to garter belts that went under her black shorts and she was wearing sleeveless button-up tan colored cloak over her body that acted like a cross between a shirt and a cape while she had a short jacket that she wore over her shoulders. The girl had light blue eyes, red hair and horns on her head that resembled mandibles on a bug, though Chrome wouldn't say that was the weirdest thing she had seen on people's heads, but it certainly wasn't normal.

"Just you this time?" Artisan asked and looked around the docs, not seeing anyone with Chrome.

"No, a few others came with, but they went to look around." Chrome answered her. "They'll be back soon enough." She patted the crates next to her. "These are full of veggies that we grew, you should be able to make use of these."

"Sweet!" Artisan smiled and clapped her hands together. "I'd love to take them right now, but there's a small, teensy, tiny, itzy bitzy little problem."

"...What?" Chrome hoped that Artisan had all the stuff that she asked for. "Don't tell me, you can't get me the parts I need?"

Artisan had an apologetic look on her face. "I really am sorry, Chrome. We couldn't get the part finished up in time. If you had come over land, it wouldn't have been a problem."

Chrome sighed softly. "How long?"

"Two days." Artisan was sweating softly at the look Chrome gave her. "The stuff's really delicate and it has to be specialty ordered and made, you know that! The only reason that you can even get it as remotely affordable as you do is because we cut you some serious slack all things considered."

Chrome sighed heavily. "I know that, but we don't really have the supplies to stay here for any longer than we have to." She'd have to actually find supplies for the return trip home. "I suppose I don't need to eat on the way back."

Artisan sighed at that. "Don't be like that, we'll make sure to give you guys plenty of supplies to take back, including stuff for cooking. So who all came with this time?"

"Linda, Warechu, IF, Compa, Gust, Filyn and a new girl by the name of Neptune." Artisan raised an eyebrow and Chrome shrugged. "Don't worry about the last one, she won't be coming back with us, she just wanted a lift up here."

"I was more surprised by the amount of people is all." Artisan muttered, "so you're sure they'll all be okay?"

"Who's to say?" Chrome sighed and slumped. "I'm going to be honest, Artisan, I don't see how we're going to survive another year. The thick forest is starting to encroach on our settlement, paths are getting closed off constantly, more monsters are getting close to the place and it's just..."

Artisan nodded at her. "I know. You're doing all you can, but what you can do is so limited in the current state of things."

Chrome sneered and looked at Lowee City. "Even if she's a brat, you'd think the CPU would do something about the monsters so that she'd have more people to torment or something." It was so frustrating to Chrome, to know that someone had so much power and wouldn't do a thing to stop the bad things that were happening. 'Then again, isn't that how this whole situation happened in the first place? That none of us cared about what happened outside of our little sections of the world?'

"So aren't you concerned about the others?" Artisan asked Chrome, who nodded at her. "Look, why don't you just take some time to enjoy yourself, right now it's the end of season sales going on, I doubt that the CPU will go down, you know she doesn't like to be bothered when there's stuff like this."

"...That might be fun." Chrome said and walked off with Artisan as some nameless NPCs came to gather up the crates of crops and move them to the appropriate locations.

(-)

"You should slow down, Gust's legs aren't very long!" The blue-haired bunny girl complained as she ran after Filyn, who was cheerfully going from one stall to another. "Plus the others aren't here and Gust doesn't want to get sat on by a fat person again."

Once would have been enough, but poor Gust had been sat on by fat people by accident on four separate occasions. Three of those four times was because the person had tripped and had sat on her because they fell on their butt. And, sadly, one time was because she had to crawl under a chair to get something she had dropped... Just as the chair broke and the person crashed down on her. All of that would have been traumatic enough, but the blue-haired bunny girl had gotten a face full of rancid gas twice because of it.

Needless to say, Gust tried to avoid being anywhere near the rear end of anyone after that.

Filyn huffed and stopped to wait for Gust. "Where's IF and the others?"

"Getting stuff for back home." Gust answered her as she caught up. "And it would do you some good to do the same." Filyn gave her a confused look and Gust rolled her eyes. "Gust means you won't be a little girl forever, right? Maybe Filyn should try to do more than be Chrome's little sister and get some good stuff?"

"...So what do you think I should get then?" Filyn asked the bunny girl. "Should I go and buy up a lot of sweet things that will be gone in an hour or maybe I should oww!"

"Don't bite your tongue so much." Gust pointed out. "Well, Gust knows some of the stuff we need back home, so we should go and get it."

"Like what?" Filyn asked as Gust led her through the people.

"Well, we need to..."

"AAAAH!"

Gust looked up, her eyes going white and blank while her face turned blue as a butt filled her entire vision and she ended up being squished under the butt. 'This sucks. Please don't fart!' She thought to herself desperately, the last thing she wanted or needed was a face full of smelly gas that took almost ten to twenty minutes to stop smelling.

Thankfully the butt that was on her was quickly removed as the person who belonged to said butt got up and off of her. "I'm sorry." The girl, who had long brown hair, said and bowed to Gust.

"Is okay, Gust is used to having butts sitting on her face." Gust muttered and looked at the girl. "You look familiar." The girl had a halter top, a small jacket and was wearing some really tight pants that gave her pert rear end a small lift that made it more eye catching.

Gust was a little disturbed that a girl who looked to be about as old as Filyn was wearing them, but at least they looked nice on her.

"Um..." The girl blushed softly. "My name is Ram..."

Gust's eyes widened and she took a step back. "The CPU Candidate?!" When Ram flinched and looked like she was about to tear up, Gust bit her lip softly. "Gust is sorry, but Gust doesn't like your sister."

"...I... I understand." Ram said softly and looked down. "It's okay... I'll go."

"Hey!" Filyn suddenly spoke up and grabbed Ram's hands, much to both Ram and Gust's shock. "I'm Filyn. Want to hang out?"

"HUH?!" Both Gust and Ram stared at her in shock.

"Well, I don't know where anything is, maybe you do? I think we needed sugar and flour back home, right?" Filyn looked at Gust, who nodded slowly and Filyn smiled and looked at Ram. "See? Do you know where we can get some?"

"Well, um... Uh huh..." Ram nodded slowly and blushed as Filyn smiled brightly.

"Great! Let's go get some!"

Gust watched as Ram and Filyn walked off together, the CPU Candidate looking bewildered while Filyn smiled brightly. "Uh oh..." Her eyes widened and she ran after both Ram and Filyn. "Get back here, Filyn! Chrome will have Gust's butt in a sling if you don't get back here!"

(-)

Meanwhile...

"Great, just great!" Rom groused as she looked around. "I stop to pee and Ram wanders off!" She had no idea what was going through her younger twin's head, but she didn't like the fact that Ram wasn't with her. Kicking the dirt on the ground she trembled, feeling anger rising up in her. "What if Blanc finds her alone?"

"What would happen?" A voice she didn't instantly recognize asked from behind her.

"Stupid Blanc would..." Rom's eyes widened and she spun around to see Neptune standing behind her with a curious look on her face. "What are YOU doing here?!"

"Well, you know, I'm kind of lost, so I thought I'd just wander around and I saw you looking really upset, so I followed you." Neptune smiled at her. "You lost Ram, huh?" She sighed as she saw the angry, defensive look on Rom's face. "Hmm... Oh! I know!" She took three big steps forward and held out her hand to Rom, who stared at her in surprise. "I'm Neptune, the main character and I'd like to say hello!"

"...Huh?" Rom stared in shock. "Don't you know who..?"

"You're Rom, CPU Candidate of Lowee, right?" Neptune smiled at her, causing Rom to gawk at her. "Yeah, other than the fact you have bigger boobs than Blanc, you're certainly Blanc's sister."

Rom wasn't sure why, but hearing that quip about her boobs caused her to suddenly break into laughter. "Oh... Ha ha ha ha! What?! Bwahahahahahaha!"

Neptune grinned at hearing that. That was so much better than a sullen and sad Rom. "Yeah, Blanc is like super flat, I think I saw her once hold her knees against her chest under her shirt and pretend that she had boobs." Of course, Neptune had snapped a picture of that and told Blanc that she had sent it to Vert and Noire for teasing material.

The resulting beating that Neptune had gotten from Blanc was painful but well worth it.

Plutia and Nepgear weren't the only ones who thought Blanc crying was kind of cute after all.

'At least Blanc calmed down when I showed her that the camera wasn't even on.' Neptune thought to herself. It had taken her a few days to recover from the beating as well. She had apologized to Blanc for the teasing and even got Blanc a few gifts to show that she had been sorry about it.

Vert's teasing that they were dating and Noire's cold attitude during that time was something that Neptune could have done without though.

Rom stopped laughing after a few moments and let out a small sigh. "So why did you follow me?"

"Like I said, I'm lost." Neptune rubbed the back of her head. "And I noticed that you're wandering around looking like you lost someone, so how about you show me around?"

Rom gave her a look before slowly nodding. "I don't know why you want to be around me, but sure..." She shrugged and walked off, followed by Neptune.

"So..." Neptune looked around the buildings as she followed after Rom. "This place looks kind of run down."

"I guess," Rom shrugged, "I've never seen it as anything but like this." Her walking slowed down as they came across an empty playground. "Well, I guess she's not, huh?!" Rom's eyes widened as Neptune suddenly grabbed her hand and dragged her into the playground. "What are you doing?!"

"I wanna play on the whirling wheel!" Neptune said gleefully as she dragged Rom over to an object on the edge of the playground.

"It's a merry go round." Rom pointed out, noting it was rather simple, some handle bars for holding on, but no seats or anything else since it was designed for all ages. "But this is so... WAGH!" She yelped as she found herself sitting on the cool metal as the bottom of her butt was brushing against it.

"Nope! Every kid can have fun doing this!" Neptune shook her head and grabbed onto the bars before she started to run. "My three kids love playing on this, even when they got "too old" to be playing on it, I still took them to play on it." IF had been kind of embarrassed about it, Compa just thought it was nice and Peashy, being permanently stuck at five years old, loved it to death.

As Neptune's running got faster, Rom grabbed the safety bars and squeezed tight as the world quickly became a spinning blur before Neptune jumped on and grinned at her, giggling as she noticed Rom's face slowly change to show her enjoyment. "See?"

"This is so weird!" Rom yelled as she felt the world spinning around. "Can this go faster?" She asked as the spinning started to slow down.

"Sure!" Suddenly Neptune jumped off and did a quick roll before running back to the merry go round and instead of running, she decided to start giving it hard pushes to increase the speed. When she heard Rom's squeal of laughter, she smiled and kept pushing it.

Like all good things, the fun would eventually have to end, though in this case, it was because Neptune pushed too fast and accidentally broke a few nuts and bolts, causing the merry go round to break off and fly into the air, much to Neptune's utter shock as it went straight up.

"Uh oh!" Neptune's eyes were white, blank and had black circles around them. "May day! May day! SOS! We got a flying whirly bird and... AAAAAH!" She turned and ran away as the thing tilted, thanks to Rom's weight and angled itself back down at her. "RUN AWAY! ATTACKING PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT!"

"AAAAAAH! I CAN'T GET OFF! HAAAAALLLLP!" Rom screamed in fear as she squeezed the safety bars as tightly as she could. "I CAN'T TRANSFORM! I DON'T WANNA DIE!"

Rom's world was spinning, but she could see that the ground was getting closer and closer and she squeezed her eyes shut, knowing she'd hit the ground and get hurt. It didn't take long for the merry go round to slam into the ground and send her flying.

"OOOF!" She heard a voice as she crashed into something. Opening her eyes, Rom found the world was still spinning. But after things started to align themselves right, she saw that she was sitting on Neptune's stomach. "Well... I guess the Nep stomach is a good landing pad for both P-Ko torpedoes and flying Roms." Neptune giggled even though she was in pain. "Urgh, I swear, you'd think getting smashed in the stomach for a few years would toughen you up, but nope, still hurts."

Rom didn't know why, but she found the whole situation hilarious and her face broke out into a smile as she started to laugh.

This was quite easily the happiest day of her life.

(-)

"Lady Blanc?" One of the guards asked as she knelt to the blue-haired CPU. "May I ask what you're doing?"

"It's fine," Blanc said softly as she adjusted her blue bow, "I was thinking of going for a walk." Her eyes turned red as shadow came over her face and a grin that wouldn't be out of place on a psychotic former Goddess of Tari spread across her face as well, "and if I happen to find a couple of naughty little shit-stain little sisters, well... I can't be held accountable for what will happen next."

The guards shuddered in fear as she walked off laughing.

To Be Continued...

* * *

How cute and, uh oh.

...Why do I love ending chapters on an "uh oh" so much anyway?


	7. Truth Revealed

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

I really am not meaning to update this every couple of days. I just get bored easily.

Oh well, it's my fic and I'll update when I want to!

* * *

Chapter 6

"Filyn!" Gust yelled as she finally caught up with the redheaded little girl and grabbed her arm. Panting heavily, she gave Filyn an angry look. "What are you doing?!" She gave Ram a side glance and Ram flinched, looking away. "You know what Chrome says about CPUs!"

"Huh?" Filyn gave her a confused look and looked at Ram. "...Are you the CPU of Lowee?"

"I'm... Um... A CPU Candidate." Ram said nervously, a totally dejected look on her face as she slowly turned away. "I'll go now."

Before she could turn away completely, Filyn grabbed her hand, much to both Ram and Gust's shock.

"Well, you're not the CPU yet, right?" Filyn smiled at her. "So that means you're not as bad as the CPU, right?"

Gust groaned, while the logic was somewhat sound and Filyn couldn't be faulted for not knowing the truth, Gust knew that CPU Candidates were just ticking time bombs. "Gust is warning Filyn, this won't end well." She sighed at the look Filyn gave her. Gust knew that she should pull Filyn away from Ram and get her out of the area and explain things to her.

But Gust also knew that if Filyn knew the truth about CPU Candidates that Filyn would be rushing back here to make friends with Ram and make her as happy as possible.

'Such a thing will only end in tears.' Gust sighed and nodded at Filyn. "Fine, Gust won't stop you." Suddenly she was hugged by tightly by Filyn.

"Thank you, Gusty!" Filyn smiled and let go of the small girl and turned to face Ram, before looking around on her left side. "Um... Gust, where did Ram go?"

Gust sighed and turned Filyn to her right and Filyn gasped as she saw Ram right there. "And you keep saying that you don't need anyone to help you."

"I can't help it! I only have one eye!" Filyn pouted at the bunny girl.

"What happened?" Ram asked, getting a helpless shrug from Filyn. "You don't know?"

"I don't remember." Filyn admitted and looked down while scuffing her feet on the ground. "One day I wake up and Chromey is there smiling at me and asking me how I am and I can only see out of one eye."

Ram bit her lip softly. Part of her wondered if Blanc had done that to the girl. 'That sounds like something she'd do.' Still, there was something that was bothering Rom. "Um... Miss Bunny... Why do you hate me?" Her eyes teared up and she looked down. "Everyone hates me. Why? What did I do? No one tells me. Other than Rom, there's only been three others that liked me. One is dead, one works at the Basilicom and one got really hurt because of me."

"...I like you." Filyn answered her as Rom looked up, tears running down her face silently. "So that's four people now."

Gust sighed and wondered if she should tell the girl the truth before shaking her head. "Gust doesn't hate you. Gust hates the CPU."

"Then treat her better!" Filyn yelled, causing a few people to look at them before quickly looking away as they noticed who was with the two small girls. "She's not the CPU!"

Ram just slumped and looked down. "It's okay, I'll just go away and look for Rom."

Gust sighed as she saw the young-looking girl and rubbed her forehead. "Dammit, this is just a bad idea and Gust hates herself for doing this." She walked over to Ram and looked the girl in the eye. "Gust is sorry."

"Um..." Ram fidgeted softly and smiled at her. "It's okay." She gave them a small smile. "...Do... Do you want to hang out? I know a store where we can get some yogurt."

"Yogurt?" Filyn perked up at that. "Cool! Let's go!"

Gust sighed and followed after them. "Well, probably no worse than time Gust was helping Linda fix the water pumps and the sewer pipe burst." At least they were near the ocean, so getting clean wasn't too hard, but that was still incredibly disgusting.

(-)

Linda sighed heavily as she loaded the last of the stuff onto the boat. "Urgh, I hate being the muscle for everything."

"Sorry, Linda." IF said and handed her a bottle of water. The green haired girl took it and downed the contents in almost one gulp. "We can't even leave yet because Artisan doesn't have the stuff ready."

"Want to go for a walk and see what's going on?" Compa asked them.

"Why not?" Linda shrugged as she got up, took another bottle from IF and doused herself to wash the sweat off of her body. "Okay!" She smiled after shaking her head to get the water out of her hair. "Let's go."

Warechu looked around, a concerned look on his face. "Something's not right, Chu."

"What is it, Mr. Mouse?" Compa asked Warechu, who shook his head negatively.

Linda bit her lip softly. "You know, the last time the rat said that something wasn't right it stormed really hard for three days straight."

The four of them looked at each other nervously and ran into the city. They didn't know what was going on, but whenever Warechu thought something wasn't right, bad things tended to happen.

(-)

A couple of hours later...

"Phew!" Neptune smiled as she and Rom sat on a bench that was near a busy street. Most of the passersby ignored them as they made their way to their destinations. Holding up a couple of packages, she handed one to Rom, who looked at it in confusion before opening the top, revealing a jiggling substance under the lid. "Here." Neptune handed her a plastic spoon.

"What's this?" Rom asked as she dug a spoon into the substance and pulled it out to take a taste of it. Her eyes widened in shock as the flavor not only caused her taste buds, but also her brain, to almost explode from the flavor.

"Hee hee," Neptune giggled as she took a bite of her own food. "Pudding is awesome, unless it's eggplant pudding." She pouted, remembering when the Arfoire from Plutia's world had sent her a pudding on April first after reforming but before they had opened the portal back to the Hyperdimension fully. That had been the most disgusting, vile and nasty thing Neptune had ever ingested and almost made her swear off eating pudding entirely for the rest of her life because of it.

The two ate in silence for some time, just enjoying the pudding and suddenly Rom started to hiccup, causing Neptune to look at her. "Hmm? Rom? Are you..?" She stopped as she saw Rom crying. Neptune didn't say anything as she wrapped an arm around Rom's shoulder, causing the small girl to turn and bury her face into Neptune's chest and cry silently.

Neptune was reminded of IF for several months after Peashy had been captured by the Seven Sages and how the tough girl would crawl into bed with her at night and hug her when she thought Neptune was asleep.

After nearly ten minutes, Rom pulled herself away from Neptune and rubbed her eyes. "Nothing happened." Rom groused, her face red as she looked away.

"Huh?" Neptune blinked in confusion. "Did something happen?" Neptune fought the urge to grin as she saw the corners of Rom's lips curl upwards. Looking up into the sky, Neptune grimaced as she saw how late in the day it was. "Hmm, Imma need a place to sleep, huh?" She had kind of hoped to run into Blanc since there were so many people out and ask her some questions, but that didn't look possible now since it was getting so late in the afternoon.

"Oh..." Rom nodded. "Well, Ram and I have been sleeping in trees." Neptune gave her a sharp look and Rom looked down. "We, um, ran away from the Basilicom."

Neptune was about to speak up when a voice suddenly yelled at them. "HEY!" Neptune and Rom both looked up to see IF, who had yelled at them, Linda, Warechu and Compa, walking their way.

"Hey, Iffy!" Neptune stood up and waved to the girl. "I thought you were going to leave already."

"Yeah, that didn't work out." IF grumbled and looked at Rom, who was giving her a sullen, though surprised look and blinked, wondering where she had seen that girl before before mentally shrugging it off. "Looks like Artisan didn't have the parts needed, so we gotta wait a couple of days otherwise we'd already be gone."

"Ah, well that..."

Before Neptune could finish that, Rom pushed past her and walked over to Compa, her body trembling with each step. "C...Compa?"

"Goodness!" The amputee's eyes widened as she saw who was with Neptune. "Rom! Is that you?"

The next thing that any of them knew, Rom was burying her face into Compa's chest and hugging her as tightly as her little body could muster, crying out how sorry she was.

"Um..." Neptune gave Compa a confused look. "You didn't tell me that you knew them." Then again, she had never asked, but it looked like Rom knew Compa pretty well.

Compa held up her hooked hand and smiled at Neptune. "Uh huh, I used to take care of Rom and Ram whenever they got hurt."

IF resisted the urge to make a comment about that. Now that she knew who the little girl was, she knew why she looked familiar. 'Great, the CPU Candidate of Lowee. What's next? That bitch White...'

"Well..." Neptune smiled happily at Compa as she crossed her hands behind her head. "It's good to know that you know them." Still, Neptune was a bit disturbed how easily Rom was breaking down and crying whenever someone did something nice for her. 'What the heck is going on here?' She really wanted to have a talk with Blanc about how Rom was acting. 'Man, if Rom or Ram were acting like this back home, I know that the other Blanc or Vert would swoop in and take them away from Blanc.'

(-)

Elsewhere...

Walking into the public square, complete with benches around a large outdoor clock, Chrome raised an eyebrow as she came across Filyn and Gust. Artisan had already left to go deal with another client, leaving Chrome to wander around Lowee on her own. 'I really don't want to be here any longer than I have to and...' Her eyes widened as she saw who was with Filyn and Gust.

She was about to run up and grab Filyn and Gust and run away but she stopped as she saw the absolutely happy look on Filyn's face as well as the CPU Candidate's face. '...Dammit.' Seeing Gust looking cautious but also somewhat happy made her resist the urge to run in there and get them away from the other girl. 'Well, if she's able to smile, then it's not so bad right now...' Maybe she could get this girl away from her sister before something bad happened. 'Still...' Her fingers twitched as she resisted the urge to call forth her weapons to deal with the CPU Candidate.

It was hard, but she did so.

"Chromey!" Filyn yelled as she saw Chrome and ran up to her, giving her a hug. "Are we going home then?"

"Sadly no." Chrome shook her head. "It looks like Artisan didn't have the parts ready yet, so we have to wait a couple of extra days."

"Oh, okay!" Filyn smiled at her and let go of the hug. "Did you meet my friend? This is Ram."

"Um... Hello." Ram fidgeted under the intense look that Chrome gave her. "Did I do something wrong?"

Chrome sighed and shook her head. "No, you didn't." She knew it wasn't Ram's fault, but her fate was one that couldn't be changed. 'Not since that day...' Chrome shook her head and sighed softly. "Well, we should get caught up with the others and..." She trailed off as she saw them walking her way. "Well, speak of the devil and she'll appear." Chrome would have smirked, but she saw the other CPU Candidate walking next to Compa and mentally sighed as the two groups met up.

Ram's eyes widened as she saw Compa and Rom and ran over to them, hugging both of them happily.

IF was lagging a bit behind the others and blinked as she felt a tug on her coat. Looking, she saw Warechu looking at her somewhat worriedly. "I'm fine, just a little tired." She hated the fact that the burns on her body, even though the worst of the effects were long over, were not only slowing her down, but also preventing her from being able to do all that she wanted since she got tired so easily and her skin tended to crack without regular applications of her treatment lotions.

"You shouldn't lie to me, Chu." Warechu spoke to her. "If you need to rest you should tell us. We help each other, you know?"

"Thanks." IF said as Warechu helped her over to a bench where Linda was at. "You okay?"

"Yeah, but I wanna just get off of my feet." Linda sighed softly and leaned back on the bench. She turned her head to see Neptune running around the square with Filyn, Rom and Ram while Chrome, Compa and Gust just looked on. "Sheesh, don't they run out of energy?"

"It's kind of nice though." IF commented and smiled softly as she looked at the group as they ran around. "I don't know why, but seeing that girl... Nep...Tyuuno or something? Anyway, seeing her like that just sets me at ease and I don't know why."

(-)

Rom laughed as she ran away from Neptune, who was shambling after her, Ram and Filyn while pretending to be a zombie who wanted to snack on their brains or something. "Slow zombie can't catch me!" Rom yelled while running backwards, she turned around to see where she was going, only to hit something hard, which caused her to fall backwards. "Ooof! Hey! Watch...It..?" Rom's eyes widened and her face paled as she saw just who she had run into.

The familiar short blue hair, blue eyes, bow on the back of the head and that calm expression while wearing a white short dress. "Well, Rom..." The person looked past her and saw Ram, who was staring and trembling in fear. "Ram... It's been a few days, hasn't it? Don't you think you should come home?"

"B...Blanc..." Ram trembled in fear.

"Nep what?!" Neptune stared in shock. "Since when does Blanc have blue hair?" She squinted her eyes to see if she could get a better look at Blanc and tilted her head in confusion. 'She's not in HDD mode, so why is her hair blue? Why does she feel... Wrong?'

Blanc let out a dramatic sigh and slowly grinned at Rom. "You should have gotten up." She said softly.

What happened next had Neptune staring in both shock and anger.

"YOU LITTLE SHIT!" Blanc screamed as she quickly stepped up to Rom and kicked her in the stomach so hard that the little girl was lifted off the ground. Blanc then grabbed Rom's head and slammed her onto the ground hard, leaving a crack in the ground and causing the little girl to cry out in pain. "Oh please! That was just a love tap. Let me show you what real pain is like!"

Neptune could only stare in horror as Blanc kicked and stomped on Rom over and over again. 'Stop it... Stop it Blanc... Stop...' She called out in her mind and idly noted that no one was doing anything to help Rom out, not even Ram, who was staring at the scene and crying. "...stop it..." She whispered.

Before she knew what was going on, her feet were moving.

Standing behind Neptune, Filyn could only stare in horror and she jumped as she felt a hand on her shoulder, turning, she saw Chrome looking at the scene with a pensive look on her face.

"There's a sad fate that affects all CPU Candidates..." Chrome said softly. "Sadly, there's nothing that we can do against a CPU."

"But Rom doesn't deserve this!" Filyn protested and looked at Gust and Compa, both of whom had sad looks on their faces. "Please! Help her!"

On the ground, Rom was coughing and spitting up blood as she felt her ribs break from the beating she was getting. 'Why? Why do I deserve this? Why isn't anyone helping? Why?' A thought entered her mind. 'Why should I care? If they won't help me then I should just end them all!'

Blanc grinned as she saw Rom's body start to glow red. 'About time, just a little more and...' She felt a tap on her shoulder and she turned to see who was touching her. "What do you want? I'm busy!"

The next thing she saw was a fist filling her vision.

"STOP IT!" Neptune screamed as she punched Blanc so hard that the CPU went flying into a nearby wall, which caused everyone to stop what they were doing and stare in absolute shock. "WHAT THE NEP DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, BLANC?!" Neptune yelled, pure rage in her voice. "ROM'S YOUR SISTER FOR NEP'S SAKE!"

On the ground, Rom turned her head and looked up at Neptune, confusion and pain on her face as the red glow slowly started to die down. '...Di...Did she help me?'

Blanc, who slid to the ground, stared stupidly at Neptune before raising her hand to her face and touching her nose. 'What the fuck just happened?' She thought to herself and pulled her hand away from her face, noticing a red stain on her fingers. '...I'm bleeding...' Her eyes turned red as she jumped to her feet. "YOU BITCH! HOW DARE YOU MAKE ME BLEED?!"

A moment later, Neptune's foot was in her face as Neptune did a flying kick at Blanc, knocking the CPU of Lowee down to the ground. "How dare YOU do that to your sister?!" Neptune yelled and grabbed Blanc by her hair and lifted her up.

Blanc winced from the hair pulling but gave Neptune a confused look. "What? She's my sister! I'm supposed to punish the little shithead when she screws up." She punched Neptune in the stomach, causing Neptune to let her go.

"Oww..." Neptune rubbed her stomach and glared at Blanc. "You're wrong!" She suddenly ran forward and tackled Blanc, hitting the blue-haired CPU in the stomach at full force, causing Blanc's eyes to bug out from that. 'Thank you, P-Ko, for all those tackles you did to me!' Neptune thought to herself with a small grin. When Blanc landed on the ground, she straddled Blanc and glared at her. "You're wrong! Sure! If your little sister does something wrong, you give her a bop to the head or if she really screws up you give her a spanking, same with your children, but you always make sure that they know why they're getting punished and you show them that you love them after! YOU DON'T BEAT THEM FOR NO REASON!"

"Love?" Blanc suddenly burst out laughing. "Love?! OH MY! BWAHAHAHAHAHA! I'm the CPU! I can do what I want! These are my people!"

"WRONG!" Neptune glared at her. "You're supposed to work for your people! A good CPU makes sure that their people are happy, protected and safe before doing anything for themselves!"

Chrome, who wasn't too far away, was torn between cheering Neptune on and getting the hell out of there stiffened as she heard Neptune say that. "...What did she say?"

"The fuck you talking about?" Blanc forgot her anger in her confusion.

"You're supposed to make your people happy! You're supposed to make sure that they have a safe place to live, grow, play games and live!" Neptune yelled at Blanc.

Privately, Neptune loved being a CPU, but there were times she felt like she had been put in a cage by Histoire and made to like it. In some ways she envied IF, Compa and her big self. They were free to choose their paths, Neptune never was.

Well, except when she had been turned human in Plutia's world, but she had turned back into a CPU so fast that she never had time to stop and think about her situation or the ramifications of her actions, she had just wanted to regain her Immortality and keep her youthful figure. 'Plus the fans might have gotten upset if I had gotten older at the time.'

Blanc suddenly laughed at Neptune, who stared at her in confusion. "Is that what you think, dumbass?" A sudden burst of strength had Blanc throwing Neptune off of her as she stood up. "As if that would work." Blanc said as she stood up and dusted herself off. "CPUs draw upon power of the Fearicite, which is powered by people's fear, pain, anger, hatred, and suffering."

"...Fearicite?"

"Blanc?" Ram, who was with Compa next to Rom, looked at her sister and trembled. "What do you mean?"

Blanc shook her head and a wide, toothy grin filled her face. "Well, shit, since I said this much, I might as well continue. You keep crying when I beat that worthless shit stain Rom, so I guess I'll tell you why."

Neptune wanted to say something, but seeing a smile on Blanc's face that was more at home on Rei's face when the former Tari Goddess was in one of her psychotic moods caused her to pause.

"The truth is, you CPU Candidates have a pretty sad and pathetic future." Blanc chuckled as Ram's look of fear increased. "To even access the power of the Fearicite, you need to feel nothing in your heart but pain, anger, hate and suffering." Seeing the looks of shock on Neptune, Ram and even Rom's face was rather amusing to her. "Heh heh heh heh..." Chuckling, Blanc put a hand on her face as she started to laugh like a maniac. "And then... Heh heh heh heh... Once you're finally able to transform... Once you're finally able to feel nothing but those emotions..." A smile that could only be described as psychotic crossed Blanc's face at that moment and Neptune seriously wondered if she had bitten off more than she could chew. "You can transform and you fight the current CPU... To the death." Blanc licked her lips. "Oh, I look forward to the day you two become monsters like me. For a CPU Candidate to be able to kill their elder sister... They have to be an even WORSE monster than the current CPU!" She threw her head back and laughed. "It's so pathetically sad! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! Either you die after you transform or you become a monster even worse than I am! Either way, the people around you continue to suffer until they can't stand you and new Candidates are born!"

"And the cycle of destruction just continues." Chrome whispered sadly.

"YOU BITCH!" IF screamed as she ran forward, but was stopped by Chrome. "YOU BURNED THE GUILD DOWN! YOU CHOPPED COMPA'S ARMS OFF! YOU PROBABLY TORE OUT FILYN'S EYE TOO!"

"Huh?" Blanc looked at IF in confusion. "Guild?" She had an absent look on her face. "Oh!" Her eyes widened. "Ah yeah!" She scoffed. "I had no use for them, so they all died. You must have been the one that survived the fire."

"I..." Neptune was looking down and trembling.

"Hmm?" Blanc raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO MAD IN EITHER OF MY LIVES!" Neptune suddenly screamed and tackled Blanc to the ground again, this time she punched Blanc in the face over and over again. "HOW DARE YOU DO ALL THOSE THINGS!? CPUS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE GODDESSES OF PROTECTION!"

Not even the Deity of Sin, not even Kurome, not even the CFWs, not even Anonydeath when he brainwashed Peashy, none of them made her this mad in her life.

Suddenly both of Neptune's hands were grabbed and Blanc, her face bloody, glared at Neptune. "You know what? I'd say fuck you, but I decided that doing that to you, even if it's until you die is too good for you. So instead... I'm just going to kill you."

Neptune was thrown off of Blanc, who stood up and glared at everyone. "You want to mess with a CPU? Fine!" Blanc's eyes glowed red as she grinned savagely. "I haven't had the chance to do this in so long that I almost forgot how to." The air started to shake and crackle with energy as Blanc started to glow red. "Verwandeln!"

There was a pillar of light that surrounded Blanc, but much to Neptune's shock and everyone else's horror, the light was black with red numbers surrounding it.

When the light died down, whatever Neptune was expecting Blanc to look like, she didn't get it.

Her legs were covered in grey-colored metal that covered her legs completely from her feet up to just past her knees with the outsides of her legs that went up most of the way up her thighs were covered, but her inner thighs were completely exposed. She had gray metal armor that hovered just over the outside of her hips and a metal bikini bottom with blue highlights with a metal bikini top over her still flat chest, there was a strip of metal just over where the bottom of her ribs would be. She had shoulder armor with spikes at the ends of them, her arms from her shoulder to her hands were covered in gray armor, though Neptune saw some blue armor where Blanc's elbows should be and her hands were covered by sharp pointed blue gloves. Coming out of Blanc's backside was a tail that looked like a spear tip and Neptune privately wondered if it was attached to her tail bone or shoved up into her butt.

Blanc's hair was the same as Neptune remembered it in both color and style, though Blanc had what looked like some sort of hair clips in her hair similar to what Neptune had in her normal and HDD forms, except that they consisted of one large ring with a mostly filled in center with a single blue bar in the center that made it look like a coin slot and under it were two smaller circles with the larger one filled with a sphere and the smaller one had nothing in it. On Blanc's back were two wings that were blue on the bottom, but pitch black on the top and tips. If Neptune had to compare it to anything, she would compare them to that electric rat's tail from the pocketed monstrosities game that her Blanc put out every couple of years. Blanc's eyes were a bright orange, but they were wrong. While they still had the power symbol in them, the symbol was upside down and black, as was the sclera that surrounded the irises of her eyes.

But what really made Neptune nervous was Blanc's chest.

The area that was above and between Blanc's tiny titties...

Was a hole of pitch blackness.

Grinning as she pulled out an axe that looked like it was designed for murder and executions, Blanc chuckled at the group, which was staring at her in a mixture of shock, horror and pure fear. "CPU White Void has arrived."

To be continued...

* * *

If there are any German readers, I apologize for butchering your language, I ran some of the stuff through Google Translate, you know how reliable THAT is.

If you're having trouble picturing what White Void looks like, go look up images of Chaos White Heart from NepNep Connect: Chaos Chanpuru which was a Japanese exclusive PS Vita game.

BTW, I hope you were playing "Monster" by Skillet when Blanc transformed.


	8. White Void

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 7

"CPU..." Chrome began, her voice soft but full of dread.

"White..." IF continued, anger and hate in her voice as she stared at the bitch who had killed her friends, who had burned her body, who had caused so many problems for the people of Lowee.

"Void..?" Neptune finished as she looked at the monster that Blanc had turned into. There was a palatable sense of fear, dread and terror emanating from White Void in ways that made even Iris Heart feel like a cuddly teddy bear. 'This isn't right, this is all wrong.'

But Neptune couldn't deny what her instincts were screaming at her.

Whatever a CPU was in this world, Neptune knew one thing...

...They weren't Goddesses.

(-)

Ram watched as her sister transformed into White Void and shuddered in fear and anxiety. 'I... That's what I'll turn into?' She slumped to her knees as tears fell out of her eyes. "I... I don't want to become a monster... I don't want it. I'd rather be dead!"

"Oh shut up!" White Void growled and everyone noticed her voice was a lot deeper, almost grutteral, as she spoke. "To think that I was ever like how you are at one point in my life." White Void's voice almost sounded nostalgic. "But you really are a pathetic waste of a CPU. I guess I should be lucky that I was an only child." She smirked at Ram. "If I had a twin sister like you do, I probably would have been killed by her." She scoffed and looked at Rom before casually floating over to where her sister was and grabbing her by her head and pulling her to her feet. "I wonder..." She grinned at Rom's look of confusion. "Perhaps I should have just killed Ram in front of you?"

Rom's eyes widened and she felt a throbbing sensation through her whole being. "What... Did... You..."

White Void chuckled at Rom. "Yes, I think I'll just kill her off. See if that causes you to fully embrace your nature and finally transform."

"LEAVE HER ALONE YOU BIAAAAH!" Rom screamed in pain as White Void pulled her in close and punched her so hard in the stomach that blood came out of her mouth.

"How pathetic." White Void sneered at her. "I think I'll..." White Void blinked and turned her head as she caught something moving in the corner of her eye. "What the GAH!" She yelled as Neptune's foot connected with her face in a flying jump kick, causing her to let go of Rom as she slid away from Neptune. "Well, I do believe that you wish to die."

Neptune gave her a stern look while a simple katana formed in her hands. "Leave Rom and Ram alone, you big meanie! I'm the one who's going to give you a spanking!"

Chuckling, White Void casually dropped her axe to the ground and shrugged while walking up to Neptune. "Oooh!" She waved her hands at Neptune in a sarcastic manner. "I'm so scared." White Void grinned and held her arms to the side as she continued in with her nearly grutteral growl of a voice. "In fact, I'll give you a free shot, strike me however you want. But I'm warning you..." She nearly laughed as Neptune leaped forward and slashed at her. White Void didn't bother moving as Neptune's katana hit her in the shoulder.

Neptune's eyes widened in shock as the katana shattered from connecting with White Void's body. "Nep whaaaah?!" She let out a cry of pain as White Void reached up with her left hand and grabbed Neptune's throat, squeezing hard and instantly cutting off the air to Neptune's lungs.

"If you screw up, you're going to regret it." White Void said in a nasty whisper before using her right hand to punch Neptune in the face so hard that everyone winced from the shock wave that came from it as Neptune was sent tumbling across the city square. "NONE OF YOU ARE TO LEAVE! IF ANY OF YOU DO I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN PERSONALLY AND FEED YOU TO MY PET LANDSHARK!"

Every single person in the square instantly stopped trying to run and they turned to watch the impending execution of the poor soul who had tried to defend the CPU Candidates. No one knew if White Void had a pet landshark or not, but none of them wanted to take the chance that she did have one.

White Void sneered and rushed at Neptune, who was struggling to get back to her feet. "TAKE THIS YOU LITTLE BITCH!"

Neptune looked up just as White Void got close and punched her in the face, causing her head to jerk back as she went flying. The next thing Neptune knew, White Void had jumped in the air and landed on her stomach, driving her into the ground hard enough to leave a small crater.

"Not done yet!" White Void grabbed Neptune by her neck as she got off of Neptune and pushed down before running forward, causing Neptune to cry out in pain as the ground gave way under the forces it was being subjected to while Neptune was dragged across the ground. After several feet, she threw the unresponsive Neptune into the air before she spun around and wrapped her tail around Neptune's leg and slammed her back to the ground, getting a cry of pain out of her.

White Void grinned in delight and did it again and again, each time the street cracked and broke apart.

After a minute of that, she had her tail let go of Neptune and she turned to see the girl unresponsive, blood around her and barely breathing.

"HA HA HA HA HA HA!" White Void screamed in delight. "After all of that you're just as weak and pathetic as every other person in this world!" She held up a hand into the air and several white balls formed in the air before spikes popped out of them. "Well, either way, time to make an example out of you." White Void chuckled as she looked around. "Let everyone see what happens when you oppose a Void! Weiße durchbohren Rakete!" Snapping her hands down, the spiked balls rushed down at Neptune, who was able to crack an eye open and see the attack coming.

When several digital swords came out of nowhere and blasted the balls apart, everyone stared in shock, though White Void managed to quickly recover when the blades slammed into her and shattered with no ill effects. "What was that?" She asked as she grabbed Neptune by her hair and lifted the bruised, bloody and beaten girl up to look at her in the eye. "What was that?"

"Th...Th...thirty-two bit... Mega...Blade..." Neptune managed to groan out painfully.

White Void snarled at her. "You had that kind of attack, huh? FINE!" She suddenly shot into the air while dragging Neptune after her by her hair. After shooting up nearly two hundred feet in a few moments, she turned around in mid air and threw Neptune to the ground as hard as she could. "Let's see you survive a fall from this height!"

Neptune's limp body went flying through the air before she crashed into the ground so hard that she created a crater that tore itself across the ground for several feet.

"HA HA HA HA!" White Void laughed as she looked down. "Just what can you... HUH?!" Her eyes bugged out as she saw Neptune struggling to get up. "...HOW?!"

(-)

Rom watched, shock on her face as Neptune crashed into the ground. 'No... Stop...' Her eyes teared up as images of Neptune trying to protect her flashed through her mind. 'Why are you doing this for me and Ram? We're monsters.' She knew that she would become a monster thanks to what Blanc had told them. "What can we do?"

Several onlookers wondered if Neptune was dead and if they could go home. "LOOK!" Filyn, who was by Chrome, yelled out in shock.

When everyone saw Neptune struggling to get to her feet and push herself out of the hole, none of them could hide their surprise.

"Is that..." Neptune coughed softly, "all you got?" She pushed herself to her feet and turned to look at White Void, who was floating in the air and staring at her in shock. "I've survived falling from thousands of feet in the sky. And what kind of wimp are you? I raised a five year old girl that hits harder than you do."

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" White Void was suddenly in front of Neptune and punching her in the stomach. "WIMP?! WIMP?! YOU'LL REGRET SAYING THAT!"

Neptune let out a cry of pain as she was hit in the stomach before jerking as she got hit in the jaw multiple times. Her eyes widened and she cried out in pain as White Void stomped down on her knee from the side, resulting in a sickening crunch that forced Neptune to fall down.

White Void panted a few times before stomping on Neptune's back. "I'll tell you what. If you apologize to me, beg for my forgiveness and promise to never say anything around me ever again, I'll let you live with one broken leg."

"I'd rather die than beg you for anything you flat-chested butt munch."

If music had been playing, there would have been a record scratch as White Void's pupils shrank from that. "...What...Did...You..Say..?"

Neptune chuckled. "It seems some things aren't any different no matter the world, huh?" She raised her head to give White Void a defiant look. "You're the flat-chested Queen of the flat people spreading flatness everywhere. I bet you get jealous of the wall, you know, because you lack any sort of boobs on your body. I bet I could scrub my laundry on your chest, because Celestia knows it's not good for anything else."

"YOU BITCH!" White Void screamed as she pulled her foot off of Neptune's back and kicked her into a nearby wall. "THAT'S IT! NO ONE CALLS A GODDESS A FLAT-CHESTED QUEEN AND GETS AWAY WITH IT!" Her eyes were glowing a bright red as she snarled at Neptune.

As she slid down the wall to the ground, Neptune gave White Void a defiant look in return. "You're no Goddess. If you were a Goddess you'd be doing all you could to get the love, respect and adoration of your people. Instead you delight in their suffering."

White Void screamed and held out her hand, causing her axe to glow as several blue runes lit up along its frame before it flew through the air and to her hand. "I was going to be nice, show that I can just stop at brutalizing people, but now you need to die!"

(-)

Chrome watched as White Void started to stalk towards Neptune, anger etched deep into her visage. 'Those things she's saying, it's not possible... Is it?' Chrome didn't know what was going on, but quite frankly, she hoped that she was right. Taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out, she turned to look at IF, Linda, Warechu and Gust. "Do you four trust me?"

"Huh?" They all asked at the same time.

"I'm asking you. Do you trust me?" They nodded, wondering what she was talking about. "Then do one thing for me, please?" They looked at her in confusion as Chrome pointed towards Neptune. "If you truly trust me, put your faith in Neptune." She sighed at their uncomprehending looks. "Please, just... Imagine someone who can inspire hope for a better tomorrow."

"And that's the idiot getting her ass beaten and is about to die?" Linda asked. "Seriously boss, why do you care?"

"...Because at this point, Linda, there's nothing left to lose." Chrome answered her. "If you can't believe that she can do anything, then believe in me, because I believe in her."

"I do..." Compa said from behind Chrome as she, Rom and Ram stood there. "I'll believe in Nep Nep."

"...She was nice to me..." Rom whispered softly. "She was really nice to me."

"Ah, fine!" Linda sighed softly. "I guess I can believe in her, if just a little bit."

"Same here, Chu, but I don't think anything will come of it." Warechu winced at the look Compa gave him. "Okay, fine, I believe that she'll be able to stop White Void, you happy?"

Compa smiled at him. "Thank you, Mr. Mouse."

IF bit her lip and nodded. "Yeah. If all I can do is believe in you... Then I'll do that. Kick her ass for everyone she killed!"

"Gust doesn't know why, but Gust will go along with you."

(-)

"HA HA HA HA HA HA!" White Void grinned as she stood on top of Neptune, her foot on Neptune's chest and her axe high in the air. "Any last words before I kill you?"

Neptune was about to say something when she felt a feeling of warmth that she hadn't felt since she got to this world. "...Warm..."

"...Huh?" White Void stared at her stupidly. "What's so warm?"

Neptune closed her eyes and smiled. "The faith and belief of everyone..." She opened her eyes and they were glowing with her pupils having changed shape. "Which is something a monster like you could NEVER UNDERSTAND!"

A pillar of light erupted around Neptune, causing White Void to get knocked away by the eruption of power.

White Void and the people could only stare in absolute shock. This pillar of light, while similar to what White Void had used to transform, was white with white numbers surrounding it.

For Chrome, who was watching, she could only stare in disbelief as a warm, tingling sensation went up her back. "It can't be... She really is a CPU from another world."

When the light faded, Neptune was no longer there, instead there was a young woman with long, dark purple hair that was done up in twin braided ponytails that reached down to nearly her feet, she was quite a bit taller than she was before and she had a long-sleeved black body suit with purple trim on it that covered her from crotch to shoulders while leaving the top of her breasts exposed. Her legs were covered in leggings that went from her armored boots that were over her feet to half-way up her thighs. There was a segment of her body suit that was light purple and almost transparent, showing off her abdomen, in her hair, where there used to be two white D-clips were instead circular black clips with plus symbols in the center of them. In her gloved hands was an over-sized katana and her eyes had changed from a light purple to a brilliant blue. On her chest, above her breasts was a choker with a "N" symbol on it, as was the symbol that covered her butt.

While she had a power symbol in her eyes, unlike White Void, the color of the symbol was white instead of black and flipped over so that the half circle was on the bottom of the power symbol, not the top.

"Who are you!?" White Void yelled at the newly transformed Neptune, whom she noted was completely healed from the beating she had just gotten.

"I am CPU Purple Heart," she replied, her voice deeper, full of confidence and and warmth. "And I'll show you... Just what a real Goddess can do."

To be continued...

* * *

About time, Nep!

If some of you are wondering WHY she can transform with so few shares, well... That'll be explained later.

Landshark reference is Garchomp from Pokemon.


	9. Heart Vs Void

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

And yes, if you're wondering, that *IS* a Jojo's reference. You'll know it when you see it.

* * *

Chapter 8

In another part of Gamworld, eyes that could not see turned to look at nothing in particular. "What is this?" A soft female voice asked, her voice trembling. "It... Can it be?" She reached out towards the sensation and stopped as her fingers touched cold metal bars. The sensation that she was feeling beyond those bars was so familiar and yet alien to her that she almost didn't want to believe it. "If this is what I think..." Tears started to fall out of her eyes as she looked down.

"I don't care about me, I don't deserve to be spared. But please..." She looked up in the direction she was sensing the energy. "If you really are a CPU that protects all, save the people of this world. Save the CPU Candidates. I beg you."

She knew the person couldn't hear her, all she could do was put her faith in the person she was sensing and hope it was enough.

(-)

Back in Lowee...

"CPU..." Ram began, trembling as a warm, incredibly pleasant and kind sensation flowed through her body.

"Purple..." Rom continued, staring at the utterly gorgeous woman Neptune had turned into. Unlike White Void, this CPU left her feeling warm, protected and safe.

It was almost like the CPU just being there was enough to make the bad things in life go away.

"Heart?" White Void sneered at Purple Heart. "What the hell are you on, you fake?!"

Purple Heart chuckled at White Void's anger. "Fake? Oh no... The only fake is the washboard who dares call herself a Goddess in my presence when she's anything but."

White Void twitched in anger. "THE FUCK DID YOU SAY?!"

Purple Heart was suddenly reminded of a rather... Funny line that Vert had once said to her Blanc that had her privately laughing in the past. "Well, it's okay, after all, breasts are a sign of maturity and fertility, signs of a Goddess..." A smirk came to her face as she swore that she heard some people starting to laugh in the distance. "All qualities you are clearly... Lacking in."

There was a crack in the distance as White Void suddenly glowed red. "YOU FUCKING BITCH! I'LL KILL YOU!" She rushed at Purple Heart, who had two purple wings form on her back and take off into the air as White Void's axe crashed down where Purple Heart was a moment ago, causing a huge crater and sending cracks throughout the street.

"Really?" Purple Heart said as she hovered over White Void. "Are you so pathetic that you can only fight people who lack the strength to fight back?" She floated back as White Void flew up at her, snarling.

"Kreiselknall!" White Void yelled as she spun around like a top so fast that she looked like a blender.

Slamming her large purple and black katana onto the oncoming whirling blade of death, Purple Heart grimaced as she felt herself being pushed back with far more strength than she had thought White Void had in her. 'Of course she'd be a lot stronger than you think, you nepping idiot, she's Blanc!' Purple Heart yelled at herself mentally, a bit of her human form creeping through her mind at that moment.

After being knocked away, Purple Heart kept her distance while holding a defensive stance as she waited for White Void to stop spinning. 'Now!' She pointed her katana at White Void while power built up. "My Critical Edge will tear you apart!"

White Void's eyes widened as Purple Heart was suddenly in front of her, slashing down. "YOU... GAH!" She screamed as Purple Heart knocked her into the air and flew after her, slicing her as she passed by. "Interesting," she grinned and, ignoring the injuries she had just taken, she flew after Purple Heart, her large axe clashing against Purple Heart's sword. "So that talk of you being a CPU isn't for nothing, huh?"

Purple Heart said nothing as they swung their weapons at each other in wide arcs, the blades clashing against each other and sparking as a result.

The more she clashed with White Void, the more she was certain...

White Void was an affront to all things Divine.

(-)

On the ground, people watched in awe and surprise. Not only was there a CPU that didn't fill them with dread in front of them, she was fighting the current CPU of Lowee.

IF couldn't believe her eyes and she hesitated to feel hope, but the more she watched, the more she was certain that she had done the right thing by following Chrome's advice to put her faith in that silly purple haired girl. "To think she could do this..."

As Rom stood up, thanks to Compa's help, she grimaced, her broken ribs protesting her movement. She was helped over to a bench where she could sit down and try to ease the pain she was feeling. Looking up, she stared at Purple Heart as she parried a blow from White Void and struck back, stabbing the other CPU in the shoulder. Despite the fact that White Void had several injuries on her body, she was grinning with such glee that one would be forgiven for thinking she was enjoying herself as she fought against the Purple Heart.

Even though Purple Heart wasn't taking much damage, she still had minor cuts and injuries across her body.

"Go Purple Heart!" Ram didn't even try hiding her dislike of White Void. "Rip her limb from limb!"

The rest of the people watching slowly started to feel more and more hopeful that Purple Heart could deal with White Void permanently.

(-)

"Kopfjägerangriff!" White Void yelled as she swung her axe at Purple Heart's neck. She grunted as Purple Heart managed to block the attack. "Not bad, I guess I can stop holding back so much." She grinned at Purple Heart's look. "What? Did you really think that I was going all out before? People are so fragile that I have to take care not to break them so easily."

"...You threw me from a very high height." Purple Heart commented, getting a laugh from White Void.

"I admit, I was trying to kill you there, but seeing as you can survive such a hit, I'm guessing it's time to remove the kiddy gloves." White Void charged in and swung her axe at Purple Heart as she parried and blocked the attacks expertly.

Purple Heart grimaced with each attack as it felt like the strikes from White Void were threatening to take her arms clean off. She grunted in pain as she felt a strong stab on her left leg. Looking down, she saw White Void's tail stabbing her.

"Tails are so useful." White Void laughed as she yanked her tail out of Purple Heart's leg.

Purple Heart grimaced, that one actually hurt. "I'm curious," she spoke up, causing White Void to tilt her head in confusion, "is that tail connected to your tailbone or is it shoved up in your butt?"

White Void raised an eyebrow. "That's what you're confused about?" She spun around and reached behind her with her right hand to pull the bottom of her outfit down to show off the top half of her ass while her tail waggled up and down.

"Huh, it really is connected to your tailbone." Purple Heart commented before she rushed forward. "Neptune STRIKE!" She yelled, her attack hitting White Void on the ass and causing the Gamworld CPU to scream out in pain and humiliation of having her ass struck like that.

Crying out as she tumbled through the air, White Void held her bottoms and readjusted herself in mid air. "That was a low blow! You wanted to see my tail because you wanted a free shot at my ass!?" She yelled, her eyes glowing red.

"Well, partially, but I was also curious." Purple Heart answered her. "I don't think I've seen anyone with a tail. Wait, did either CC2 or Broccoli ever have one?" She couldn't recall and if they did they certainly didn't use it like White Void was using hers.

The next thing Purple Heart knew, White Void's axe was flying right at her face. Her reflexes kicking in, she knocked it away from her and rushed at White Void, who was smirking. "You're unarmed!"

"Am I?" White Void snapped her fingers.

Purple Heart's expression changed to surprise as she heard a whirling sound. Twisting and moving to the side, she cried out in pain as her left shoulder was clipped by White Void's axe. Grimacing as she felt blood pouring down her arm, she looked at White Void, who was merely smirking at her.

"You think you have a chance against me now?" White Void asked and rushed in. When Purple Heart twisted and was able to parry and avoid her attacks, she growled. "What kind of game shark are you using?!"

"Did you really think that I've never been in this situation before?" Purple Heart asked her. "I have, but I can tell this about you..." She said while pushing away from White Void. "You're getting weaker. Is the fear people have in you weakening perhaps?" She asked and held up her hand. "Thirty-Two Bit Mega Blade!"

White Void sensed an energy build-up from behind her and spun to cut down an energy blade that was flying right at her.

"YOU'RE OPEN!" Purple Heart yelled as she got close and slashed White Void with a down strike. Several more rapid strikes and slashes thanks to her masterful blade work left White Void stunned and bloodied.

White Void panted as she flew back while trying to recover, cuts, tears and blood all across her body were visible as Purple Heart flew after her. "What the hell is going on?!" She practically screeched in anger, frustration and, worst of all, something she hadn't felt since killing her elder sister all those years ago...

...Fear.

"Ruling by fear and intimidation is an effective way to control your citizens," Purple Heart said, causing White Void to glare at her, "I knew two CPUs who did that in the past. One lost all her followers and the other one reformed after I helped her out. But there's one major flaw in such a rule." She stopped chasing White Void and narrowed her eyes at the other CPU. "When you rule by fear, your greatest weakness is one who's no longer afraid." She swung her katana to the side and gestured to the people down below. "Listen to them, White Void. They cheer your defeat, they cheer for me. They no longer fear you."

White Void growled before suddenly chuckling and laughing at Purple Heart.

"What's so funny?" Purple Heart was confused, from what she could tell, with the people losing their fear towards White Void, her power had to be weakening. Sure, it wasn't as drastic as Blanc's loss of power in the Ultradimension when Mr. Badd had been manipulating her, but it was still noticeable.

"That you think that I'm finished." White Void just grinned at her.

"Even your own sisters are losing their fear of you." Purple Heart said as she held up her katana and a surge of power filled her. "But I think I'll end this here with Neptune Break!" She suddenly rushed forward, slamming into White Void before turning around and doing it again and again, picking up speed with each strike, leaving deep cuts across White Void's body.

White Void just chuckled as a particularly deep cut went across her face as Purple Heart slashed upwards. "Go ahead, keep it up, you'll just bring your own demise and the demise of those you want to protect."

Purple Heart said nothing as she flew above White Void and held up her katana. "You're finished!" She yelled as she dove down onto White Void, slamming her into the ground and kicking up a ton of dust and dirt and the ground cracked and shattered under her.

White Void's eyes bugged out as blood rushed out of her mouth and covered her face and neck from the attack. There was a deep wound on her stomach as Purple Heart pulled her katana away from White Void.

"It's over." Purple Heart said softly before staring in confusion as White Void started to chuckle in amusement. "What's so funny?"

"That you think that this is over." White Void continued to chuckle as her body was engulfed in a red aura as red energy lines started to escape from the hole in her chest. Her eyes widened as a delighted, psychotic grin came to her face while she sat up without any effort and ignored the injuries on her body. As Purple Heart took a step back in surprise, she stood up and started laughing. "To think that I'd have to use this spell..." Her eyes glowed, but instead of red, they were just shining as her aura turned from red to black. "But I guess against another CPU, it's needed."

Neptune could feel power throbbing through White Void as her energy surged higher. "What are you doing?"

"You said I wasn't a Goddess?" The Lowee CPU sneered at Purple Heart. "Then fine! If that's the case, I throw away my Goddess title and embrace becoming a Devil!"

Purple Heart took another step back. The idea of attacking entered her mind but she knew that if she tried it would be doomed to failure. 'Transformation is a free action after all.'

"Geteilt Schmerzen der Auftrag!" White Void cried out.

Purple Heart's main character's instincts screamed "danger" when White Void's smirk grew even wider as the energy condensed around her and Purple Heart could see White Void's wounds healing in real time.

"Shared pain mandate?" Slowly and carefully repeating White Void's words, Purple Heart narrowed her eyes while desperately trying to push back the sickening feeling of dread in her stomach.

"Yes. Again, it's a spell." Grinned now fully healed CPU of Lowee, grinning in malevolent triumph, as the magical circle of a light blue color appeared around her waist. "A very handy one. You see, if I put a special magical node in a certain person… or persons. I can transfer all received damage onto that person. Thankfully. I have at least TWO such convenient little shits around me for the trick to work! Huhehehehe…"

"Two li… NO!" Purple Heart's eyes widened in a horrifying realization as a sudden and loud cry of pain from nearby was swiftly replaced with a gurgle and series of sickening crunches.

Slowly, as if against her will, Purple Heart turned around just to see with terrified eyes as Ram and Filyn ran towards the suddenly broken and battered form of Rom, who laid motionlessly on the ground, blood coming out of her body.

"But wait!" White Void's grin couldn't have been any more psychotic even if she tried. "There's more! Verwandeln!" She cried out as a pillar of light engulfed her like before, but unlike her previous transformation or Purple Heart's transformation, this was red with black numbers.

When the transformation ended, Purple Heart could only stare in horror at White Void. "What the..?"

The CPU had undergone an even more horrifying transformation than last time. The skin on her body and legs became red and veins were seen. Her arms and legs were covered in what looked like tubes, or bones, Purple Heart wasn't sure which, her tail got longer and there were more spikes on it, but what worried Purple Heart was that while White Void's hands remained normal, there were large skeletal hands and forearms just above White Void's normal arms and hands. The wings on her back became three bone-like protrusions and glowed red.

White Void's outfit changed as well, where before she had an armored bikini on, now it looked like she had a bikini made out of bones across her mid-section and chest. Surprisingly the bone section over where her small breasts were located covered them completely. The hole on her upper chest remained, but there was a red glow coming from inside.

"...What happened to your face?" Purple Heart gawked as she looked at White Void's face. "Did your skin melt off?!" It looked like White Void's skin was replaced by bone, she could see the other CPU's eyes and the bottom of her face around her lips and chin still had skin, but it was still all kinds of disturbing.

"WHAT?!" White Void reached up and touched her face. "...Oh wait..." She shook her head. "NO! You moron! It's a mask." She snarled at Purple Heart. "And you can call me White Nightmare like this."

An even larger axe formed in her hands and Purple Heart privately wondered if maybe the CPU was compensating for her lack of breasts. It looked more like a large crescent blade on both sides as White Nightmare grinned at Purple Heart. "Anything more to say before I kill you?"

"Um... Yes." Purple Heart nodded. "Your shoe lace is untied."

"Huh?" White Nightmare looked down before realizing that she wasn't wearing shoes. She looked up in time to get charged by Purple Heart and knocked away after Purple Heart used her katana to strike the Lowee CPU.

"Neptune STRIKE!" Purple Heart called out as she hit White Nightmare multiple times in an instant. She watched in some dismay as White Nightmare used those large, hovering hands to dig into the ground and stop her from sliding back too far.

White Nightmare chuckled as she stood back up. "Is that all you have?" To Purple Heart and everyone watching, as none of the crowd had left, both out of fear of White Nightmare and hope that Purple Heart could beat her, they could only stare in shock.

White Nightmare had no injuries on her.

The Lowee CPU grinned at Purple Heart. "What's the matter? You were barely hurting me before, is this all you've got now?"

Purple Heart jerked in surprise as she was surrounded on all sides by white balls of energy. "This is..?"

"Weiße durchbohren Rakete!"

The balls of energy launched themselves at Purple Heart, who created dozens of energy blades to counter them, but it was a losing battle. Even with her own sword skills and instincts, the most she could do was avoid critical damage.

(-)

Chrome stared in shock, this wasn't something that she knew that White Void could do. "What is this? Do all the Voids have a Nightmare form?" If so, she wondered what they looked like and just how they were able to obtain it.

"Rom!" Ram cried out as she tried to help her sister. She looked at Filyn, who looked as troubled as she did while they tried to help the injured CPU Candidate. 'Why? Why would Blanc do this?' Her eyes started to water as she trembled. 'Blanc... She never cared for us... She hated us, just like everyone else. No one ever helped us without getting hurt. No one wants to help us now and...'

"Here." A voice broke Ram out of her thoughts and she looked up, tears flowing out of her eyes as she saw Gust holding a small bottle. "Is healing potion, might help her."

Ram nodded and with Filyn they rolled Rom onto her back and helped her sit up. "Please... Save my sister."

Gust sighed at the look Ram was giving her. 'It would be best to let this one die.' But there was a chance that it could trigger her twin to transform as well and that was just too much of a risk.

There was another reason Gust was willing to help.

Unlike the CPUs, she wasn't a heartless monster and Rom was, as Filyn put it, not a CPU yet.

Popping the top off and pouring it into Rom's mouth, Gust helped Rom swallow the liquid. "Gust still thinks this is a bad idea." She muttered as she watched the wounds on Rom slowly heal and the young girl to cough and stop trembling.

Gust really hoped that this wouldn't come back to haunt them in the future.

(-)

Purple Heart was panting some distance away, her body covered in cuts and was oozing blood from the holes in her legs, arms and sides.

"HA HA HA HA!" White Nightmare laughed at Purple Heart. "You're not bad! But please." She grinned, put her over-sized hands on the ground and rushed at Purple Heart like a demented cat during an energy rush, Purple Heart was staggering and swaying as White Nightmare got in close. "DO TRY TO SURVIVE!" She swung her axe at Purple Heart, only to watch in shock as the bloodied and injured Purple Heart swung her sword up and in move that White Nightmare couldn't describe, disarmed her and sent the axe flying.

"I'll have to thank White Heart when I get home." Purple Heart said softly. Back home, Blanc had been demanding sparring partners for one reason or another lately and Histoire had volunteered Neptune to be Blanc's sparring partner, stating that she didn't want Neptune's levels to drop down too far when the next major adventure happened again.

White Nightmare chuckled and seeing the slasher smile on her face caused Purple Heart to pause slightly. "Want to know something interesting? I've always preferred to beat people to death than using that axe, things end so fast because of that weapon." She rushed in as Purple Heart braced herself and charged forward. White Nightmare just grinned as Purple Heart's attack got close and she tilted her head to allow the injured CPU's attack hit her in the shoulder.

Purple Heart stared in shock as her katana, a weapon that had had fought against CFW Magic, Yellow Heart, Anonydeath, Mr. Badd's robosuit, Affimojas, the Gold Third and even Dark CPUs...

Shattered, leaving only a broken stump behind.

Before Purple Heart could figure out what to do next, she felt her right leg getting grabbed by one of White Nightmare's large hands and squeezing.

"Let's see how you like this." White Nightmare grinned as she slammed Purple Heart into the ground so hard that the street nearly exploded apart. "Hmm, I wonder just how tough your bones are now."

Purple Heart watched in horror as White Nightmare used her free large hand to hold her down while shifting her grip on Purple Heart's leg so that the large hand was holding onto the lower part of Purple Heart's leg while she grabbed Purple Heart's knee with her regular hands. "NoAAAAAAH!" She screamed as White Nightmare pulled up and with a sickening snap broke her leg with ease.

"Ooooh! That sounds like it hurt a lot." White Nightmare chuckled and let go of Purple Heart before jumping up and landing on the CPU's broken leg, causing even more damage to the broken appendage. "Does it hurt?" She asked in a mocking tone. Sneering, she started punching Purple Heart all over in rapid succession. "Useless! Useless! Useless!" She screamed as not only her regular fists were hitting Purple Heart, but also her large ones.

After almost three minutes of that, White Nightmare stopped and smirked as she saw that Purple Heart wasn't moving, but still breathing. "Hmm..." She grabbed Purple Heart by her left arm and lifted her up to look her in the eyes. "I wonder... Oh yes, I know the most fitting way for you to die. I'll grab your legs, hold you upside down and make everyone watch as I split you apart like a wishbone." White Nightmare grinned as she dropped Purple Heart to the ground and used her large hands to grab the Planeptune CPU's legs and held her upside down as she started to pull, causing Purple Heart to scream as she felt her everything popping and groaning. "Yes! You can just scream as I tear you apart!"

There was a loud pop and Purple Heart felt as if her hips had just been dislocated from that. The scream of anguish that came out of her mouth was like music to White Nightmare's ears.

"Just a little more!" She taunted Purple Heart as she heard some creaking, cracking and groaning from Purple Heart's body even while Purple Heart's screams got louder and more desperate while filled with pain. "Ah, there we go, now to split you in half. I hope you're ready. It's so amusing to watch people's horror filled looks when they watch themselves GAH!" She screamed and suddenly toppled over as her left leg went flying away from her, causing her to drop Purple Heart to the ground as she spun to who attacked her, only to find Chrome behind her while holding White Nightmare's axe in her hands.

"Creatures like you..." Chrome snarled as she watched White Nightmare fall to the ground. "Should just disappear!" She slammed the axe down on White Nightmare's left elbow, shattering the armor there and severing the arm completely. "For Compa..." She muttered and lifted the axe up again. "This is for IF." Chrome said as she severed White Nightmare's left arm, both of the CPU's left arms, from her body.

White Nightmare screamed in agony as Chrome lifted the axe up again, this time dropping it onto White Nightmare's body, shattering her armor and cutting deeply into the CPU's body causing her to gurgle and cough up blood.

"That was for what you did to your sister." Chrome said as she pulled the axe out of White Nightmare's body and watched as the mask on the CPU's face shattered into pieces.

"W...Wait..." White Nightmare coughed, a truly scared look on her face as Chrome lifted the axe. "Please... I didn't want to..."

Chrome narrowed her eyes at White Nightmare. "To die? I think all of your victims didn't want to die either! You use your own sisters as a healing battery. Let me ask you... Would you have given your sisters any quarter when you had to fight them? Did you spare your own elder sister when you became a CPU?"

White Nightmare's eyes widened as the image of her broken and battered elder sister laying on the ground, begging her for forgiveness before she took her elder sister's life. "...No."

"I didn't think so." Chrome said as she dropped the axe again, this time aiming it at White Nightmare's throat.

A loud thunk, a garbled groan and suddenly silence.

The CPU of Lowee, Blanc, also known as White Void and White Nightmare...

Was no more.

To be continued...

* * *

I hope that wasn't too abrupt.

Original draft was Purple Heart ending it. But my beta readers both agreed that this ending was better.

So the next couple of chapters will be unwinding and preparing for the next arc.

Um... That's it, bye!


	10. End of the Nightmare

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Anyone want to take a guess where the story goes next?

* * *

Chapter 9

There was silence in the town square as the people stared in shock, unable to believe what they had just witnessed. While some of the older people who had been watching remembered when White Void had ascended to becoming a CPU and the brutal killing she had given her elder sister, even they couldn't believe it.

For Rom, the source of her torment, Blanc, was laying there, head removed from her shoulders, her body broken and in pieces. She couldn't believe it. "S...sis is... Gone?" She suddenly doubled over and started coughing and heaving, much to everyone's worry until her cheeks expanded and she started to puke everything that was in her stomach out.

"Rom?" Ram asked, hoping her sister was okay.

"She... She's gone..." Rom, her mouth, arms and parts of her body covered in vomit and tears running out of her eyes, said, as though she couldn't believe it. "Blanc... Sis... She... She's gone."

Before she knew what she was doing, Rom let out a scream to the heavens that had people worried she was going to transform into a CPU herself. However, after it became obvious that her scream wasn't one of her transforming, but of letting out her anguish and suffering, people calmed down. The next thing she knew, she felt a hand on her shoulder and Rom looked at the person who had touched her. "...You..."

Purple Heart was bloodied, obviously tired and injured all over. Despite this, she had a kind smile on her face as she floated just off the ground and gently pulled Rom towards her and let the girl rest her head on Purple Heart's chest. "It's okay, Rom. The monster is gone, she can't hurt you anymore."

Rom suddenly hiccuped and hugged Purple Heart, crying as years of pain, suffering and anguish came rushing out.

She didn't even notice as Ram joined her in the hug and started sobbing into Purple Heart's chest as well.

Both twins and everyone else noticed when Purple Heart suddenly reverted to Neptune and flopped down to the ground, out cold, however.

(-)

Chrome was the first one to react as she dropped White Nightmare's axe to the ground and ran over to where Neptune was and grimaced at seeing the way her body was showing the injuries she had sustained in the fight. 'To think that she was telling the truth. Purple Heart, huh?' Chrome smiled softly at Neptune. 'Maybe you can fix everything.' She thought to herself before looking up at people sharply. "What are you all doing? We have an injured hero who just fought against White..." She trailed off and turned her head, her eyes wide as she felt the air vibrate and a loud scream emanating from the CPU's dead body.

It was... Disturbing... On so many levels, to see a headless body suddenly jerk and spasm while glowing red and crackling with energy before a pillar erupted from the hole in the remains of White Nightmare's body as the body started to dissolve in front of everyone.

The sky itself turned red as the pillar of light split the clouds and caused them to twist and spiral as a result.

Eventually the body of the CPU was no more and a black and red gem was all that remained as it fell to the ground, shattering upon impact.

"That looks familiar." Chrome muttered softly. "Hurry up, we have injured that need medical attention here!"

"Um..." A nameless NPC spoke up, "she's not going to suddenly..."

"You heard her name." Chrome snapped at the NPC. "Purple HEART, not Void. And there was no further transformation after White Nightmare was killed, was there?" The NPC looked at Neptune and sighed, conceding the point. "Look, let me worry about that, let's get her and these two," she motioned towards Rom and Ram, "to some place that can look them over medically."

"The Basilicom has facilities for healing." Compa spoke up. "I once worked there before the CPU found out that I was healing her sisters after she hurt them and chopped my arms off, so I know that there's stuff there." At least she still hoped so, she owed Neptune that much for standing up for Rom and Ram in ways that no one else had ever been able to.

Chrome nodded and looked at Rom and Ram. "Will you lead us to the Basilicom?" The two nodded and Chrome followed after them, followed by Filyn, Compa, Warechu, IF, Linda and a few NPCs. 'I wonder... How long can Lowee last without any CPU ruling it.' Looking at Rom and Ram, she wondered just how much protection they gave if they gave any at all. 'Even if they aren't fully realized CPUs, would their mere existence slow the destruction of Lowee down?'

Chrome sighed, not knowing the answers or liking any potential answer to the questions she got. 'I'll have to get those two somewhere safe.'

It wasn't because Chrome liked them, far from it.

She was just concerned that the people might decide to vent their frustration out on the CPU Candidates since they couldn't transform and now that the CPU was dead and no new CPU was taking her place. And as much as Chrome sympathized with the rest of the citizens of Lowee, she knew that the twin girls didn't deserve that.

No one did.

(-)

Several minutes later...

Looking up as she saw Rom and Ram walk into the Basilicom, Financier ran forward and hugged the two Candidates tightly. "You're both okay! I'm so glad!" She had felt a surge of power from the city and feared that Blanc had gotten truly fed up with the twins and had transformed to kill them. But seeing the energy rush from the center of town several minutes ago, she was worried that one of the two had become a CPU. 'Even if one of them is the new CPU, I'm glad that they're both okay.'

To her shock, they both hugged her back just as tightly and sobbed how sorry they were to her. 'Wait, if one of them is the CPU, then...'

"Excuse me..." A woman with long silver hair, a brown shirt and pants who was carrying a small girl with short, spiky light purple hair in a white hoodie who had an obvious broken leg among other injuries, spoke up. "If it's alright with you, we need to get this girl some medical help. Also, someone should make sure that those two are okay."

"Right." Financier nodded, she recognized Chrome instantly. It was hard not to.

After all, she was the only one who had stood up to Blanc in the past and had walked out under her own power.

(-)

After getting Neptune onto the medical bed so that the doctors and nurses in the Basilicom could set her leg and fix the other injuries that she had sustained.

When they realized that Neptune's legs had been dislocated at the hip joints, they had to push her legs back in, causing the small girl to sit up, screaming in pain before she flopped back down, still out cold.

"...I'm not sure if I'm impressed or worried." One of the doctors said while working on Neptune's legs.

As they pulled Neptune's broken leg and reset it, causing her to scream and thrash, but still stay passed out, the doctors determined that they were impressed. They didn't know anyone else who could sleep through severe pain like this.

As the doctors worked on fixing up Neptune's injuries, a few nurses, including Compa, gave Rom, who had been stripped out of her bloodied clothes and was laying on another table with just a thin sheet over her body in another room, an examination for injuries.

Rom shivered as she felt the nurses run their hands over her body to look for any injuries. "Oww..." She winced as she was poked on the side. "That stung." Sure, Blanc had hurt her much worse, but it didn't mean that what she was feeling didn't hurt.

"Don't worry, Lady Rom," one of the nurses gave her some reassurance. "We're almost done with this side. We'll have to check your back and give you a thorough examination."

"Um..." Rom gave her a confused look. "Thorough? Does that mean?"

"Yes, including internal exams." The nurse nodded at her. "You haven't had one in a long time and we're worried about any lingering injuries."

Rom whimpered as they finished up and rolled her over and lifted her rear up. She winced as she felt them start the examination. 'Not going to be able to sit down properly after this.' She groaned as she felt them get more intense and intrusive. 'This feels so wrong.' She knew it had to be done. After all, she could have intestinal injuries, hemorrhoids or worse.

It didn't mean that it wasn't embarrassing as all hell to have her bare butt up in the air and people looking at her more intimate places though.

The only thing that made her not try to rush out of there crying was the fact that she knew that Ram was likely getting the same treatment.

(-)

An hour later...

Rom twitched as the nurses got done with her, giving her a mostly clean bill of health and got dressed. "That was so wrong." Whimpering as soreness came from her rear end, Rom walked out after getting her clothes on completely and ran into Ram, who was standing in the hallway looking miserable. "Did they look at your butt too?"

Ram nodded, sniffling and looking like she was about to cry. "My butt's really sore now."

"So is mine." Rom nodded at her. "Um, I wonder if Neptune's done yet."

"Yes." Both girls jumped in shock and turned to see Compa smiling at them. "If you want to see her, I'll take you to her." Both of them nodded and followed after Compa. Ram went on her right side while Rom went to her left side. Both girls grabbed her prosthetic arms and walked with her.

As they walked off, Chrome sighed as she stood nearby and leaned her head back. 'Lowee is free... But what's going to happen next?'

"Um, Lady Chrome?" Financier spoke up, causing Chrome to look at her curiously. "Are you busy right now?"

"No, if you need me for something, I dunno what good I'd be, but I'll do what I can." Chrome answered her. "So what do you need?"

"I was wondering if maybe you would want to get those who live in your settlement to come back to the city?" Financier asked her. "It might take some time though, most of Lowee's airships aren't in working order, but I think there's a couple that just need some minor fixes and we can get them ready to fly to the South and move everyone to the city."

"Might not be a bad idea." Chrome admitted. "I'll have to call ahead, there's only a few working radios out there that will get any calls."

"Of course," Financier nodded at her, "um, what are you going to do about the other nations? Even if the CPUs don't bother with anything outside of their territories, they might..."

"They won't," Chrome answered her, "CPUs of this world have never cared about anything outside of their own nations, even if not dealing with the problem would cause more problems in the long run." In this case, Chrome was thankful that no CPUs would bother to come to Lowee and check out what happened. At most they would assume that a new CPU had come to power in Lowee and they had no reason to head to the nation to check it out.

At least she hoped that was the case. 'I wonder if they know that there isn't a new CPU yet.'

But the bigger question the plagued Chrome was...

"What will we do now?" After living so many years under the tyranny of a CPU, the fact that there wasn't one running things made Chrome wonder just what the people would do.

Financier had no answer for her.

(-)

"Wow..." Neptune looked around, seeing nothing but blackness, "I know I'm not dead, because I don't see any Angels coming to send me back to Hell." After all, King Yama had warned her that she had no chance to go to Heaven after she died again. "I mean, I save four dimensions, one of my predecessors, I raise three kids, my sister's turning out to be a really good CPU, though, hmm... Maybe it's cuz I was pretty mean to her in Plutie's world? Or maybe it's cuz I let Plutie do THAT to Nep Jr.? Yeah, probably, then again, I blame that one on the writers, every other part of the franchise that Nep Jr. and I are in we're super close to each other after all. Or was it because of what Kurome did to me and then I tried to kill Nep Jr.?"

Then again, Neptune had to wince as memories of how she had used Nepgear as a maid and how she had really started to slack off with her Goddess duties after Nepgear was born. "Am I a bad sister?"

Images of what the blue-haired Blanc had done to Rom flashed through her mind and she shuddered. "Nah uh! I didn't do that to Nep Jr.! But I suppose I could be a better big sister if and when I get home."

_"Well, that's fascinating."_

Neptune's eyes lit up as she heard that voice. "HISTY! Where are you? Did you get warped to this dimension too? Or are you calling me like you did when Nep Jr. and I got sucked into Uzume's console?"

_"Um... I think you're confused, but I certainly know your voice. Who are you?"_

"Oh, Histy," Neptune smiled brightly while looking around. "Come on out, it's me, Neptune!"

_"...I see."_ Histoire's voice said, some trepidation in her voice. _"You know who I am, so that will keep things short. Neptune, please, I implore you... Travel to the other nations and save the CPU Candidates from their fates."_

"Uh... You mean to stop them from turning into CPUs?" Neptune asked, making sure that she got the information correct. She knew that she wasn't intelligent in a lot of ways, and how many times had she been called an idiot by everyone? Even Uni, Rom and Ram, despite how polite and nice they were to most everyone, treated her with disdain for how stupid she was at times. 'I wouldn't be surprised if Nepgear thought of me as an idiot sometimes.' She thought to herself.

_"Yes."_ Histoire's voice confirmed for her. _"I'm sorry, I'm running out of time and I'm getting tired. Please, save the Candidates and guide them to a new path."_

"No pressure," Neptune said, her voice somewhat snarky as she spoke. "Hey, Histy... Where are you?"

_"I will speak more... In the future... Do not... Worry... I... Do not... deserve..."_

When the voice disappeared, Neptune bit her lower lip. "Sorry, Histy, but I didn't get that last bit." When there was no response, she sighed. "Great, next thing I know she's going to ask me to go around looking for shiny rocks that come together and make a key or something."

Sighing as she didn't get any response from anyone, Neptune shrugged. "Well, I guess I've been in my mind long enough, time to wake up!"

When nothing happened, Neptune sighed and hung her head. "Great, now I'm trapped in my own mind, I wonder why, oww oww oww!" She suddenly yelled and grabbed her left leg, wondering why it was hurting before remembering how it had been broken in both her human and HDD forms. "Owwies, I know Blanc was bad, but that was really mean." Not even the CFWs had done that when they were captured, bound with tentacles and had their shares drained for three years. "Then again, that was pretty bad too." She giggled as she felt herself fading out of her mind. "Oh! Time's up! Finally!"

(-)

Grimacing as she woke up, Neptune groaned as she felt pain shooting up from her legs. "Oww, oww, oww..." She tried to sit up and see how badly her legs were messed up.

Tried to because she noticed that there was someone sitting next to the bed and dozing off. When the person heard Neptune's voice, their eyes snapped open and blue eyes looked at Neptune curiously.

"Hey, Ram..." Neptune smiled softly. "Where's..." She turned her head when she heard some whimpering. On the left side of her bed, she saw Rom, resting her head on the bed with a distraught look on her face as she whimpered in her sleep.

"No, please... No... Sis, please... No..." She jerked in her sleep and Neptune looked at Ram, who was looking sad and unsure as to what to do.

"Hey, Ram, can you help me get Rom into bed with me?" Neptune whispered as Ram nodded and ran around the bed to Rom and helped get her into bed and moved her so that she could rest her head on Neptune's chest while Neptune wrapped an arm around Rom's body. When she saw how Ram looked somewhat longing at the scene, Neptune patted the open spot next to her. "It'll be tight, but if you want to cuddle, go ahead, just don't kick in your sleep." IF, Peashy and Compa had been kicking fiends in their sleep as babies and Neptune remembered how much of a pain it was to sleep when they were in bed with her.

Seeing Ram's eyes light up and she ran around the bed to get into bed and settle down next to Neptune, hugging her and cuddling against her. "Thank you, Miss Neptune."

Before Neptune could answer, Rom started whimpering and twitching her sleep again. Neptune hugged her with one arm. "Shhh... Rom, it's okay. The monsters are gone..." She said softly to the trembling girl. "They're all gone now. Just rest, no more scary monsters will hurt you. You're safe now."

Neptune wasn't expecting a response from that, not in the slightest. "Do you mean it?" Rom asked, her eyes cracking open, shocking Ram and Neptune. "I'm sorry, you woke me up when you hugged me." She sighed and buried her face into Neptune's chest. "I'm sorry, I'm just... I'm horrible. Sis always..."

"Stop it." Neptune snapped at Rom, causing both girls to stiffen, remembering what Blanc did to them when she spoke like that. "First of all, that wasn't your sister, that was a monster that looked like your sister."

"But..." Ram spoke up, trying to protest, but she stopped when Neptune pinched her shoulder.

"I know your real sister." Neptune smiled at them, causing both of them to stare at her in shock. "Your real sister might have a temper and would probably chase you around if you make her mad, but she would never hurt you. In fact, if either of you were crying, she'd either tell you to stop crying or beat up whatever made you cry."

"But..." Rom trembled. "Blanc was our sister..."

"Nah, that wasn't Blanc." Neptune smiled at Rom, who gave her a confused look. "The real Blanc is a real sweetheart who wouldn't ever want you two to be hurt."

"She sounds nice..." Ram said softly.

"Then why isn't she here?" Rom asked, trembling and tearing up. "Why were we left with a monster as our sister then?!" Tears fell from her eyes as she started crying. "Why would our real sister leave us with a monster?! Our sister left us! She didn't save us! She wanted us to die!"

Neptune was starting to panic as she heard Rom's rants. 'Neppit! How can I..?' Her eyes widened as an idea came to her. 'I'll do for her what I did for Iffy and Compa!' She smiled and nodded at that. "Well..." She waited for Rom to sniffle and look at her. "If you want, I can be your big sister for now."

Both girls stiffened and trembled in fright.

"...What?" Neptune gave them a weird look. "Why are you afraid? The worst that I'll do is eat the last pudding in the fridge if you were saving it."

"...What is with you and pudding?" Rom asked as she giggled softly. "You... You won't hurt us?"

"Nah uh!" Neptune shook her head and lifted her hand off of Rom to hold up a finger. "It's the job of the big sister CPU to make sure that her little sister, or sisters in this case, grow to be proper CPUs and protect and nurture them. If you want, I'll be your big sister and show you how to be a real CPU, not a monster."

The next thing Neptune knew, she had twin girls hugging her and bawling their eyes out while calling her big sister.

Neptune lowered her hands and hugged them both to her. "Don't worry, I'll protect you both and no one will hurt you again, okay?" The only response she got was more crying from them. 'Histy, I don't know what's going on here, but if all the nations have CPU Candidates, then I'm going to help them if I can.'

Neptune hoped that she wouldn't screw this one up.

To be Continued...

* * *

Ever listen to the audio drama where the Candidates were swapped with the CPUs? Blanc had Nepgear as her sister, Neptune had Rom as her sister, Noire had Ram as her sister and Vert had Uni as her sister in that what-if scenario. It is the most adorable thing ever. I won't spoil the contents, but I will say that Vert and Uni's interaction in their what-if reminded me of how they interacted in Shadows of the Heart.


	11. Fearicite

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Before I begin, I want to give a shout-out to Shiena, who recently posted a sequel to "Love in a Time of War". I know that a good chunk of my readers also read that story and the sequel was just posted. It's called "Love in Time of Heresy".

* * *

Chapter 10

The next morning in Lowee found Neptune wearing her normal clothes while sitting in a wheelchair as Rom and Ram pushed her around the Basilicom. "I can walk." She groused and looked at her leg, which was wrapped up in a cast to hold it still.

"Nah uh." Ram shook her head as she and Rom pushed Neptune around. "Compa told us that your legs were nearly torn off of you, so you need to take it easy for a couple of days. Plus your leg needs to heal."

"Um... Big sis Neptune..." Rom said, causing Neptune to look towards her left. "Thank you so much."

"Gee, you thanked me like five times this morning already." Neptune pointed out to her and giggled as the girl blushed. "It's okay. Anyway, you two wanna go on a raid?"

The two looked at her in confusion as Neptune gave them a grin.

(-)

A few minutes later...

"This is..." Rom looked at the room in shock. It hadn't been touched and she was expecting it to be completely destroyed.

"Blanc's room?" Ram asked Neptune, who grinned at them.

"Well..." Neptune suddenly pulled out a familiar looking magic staff from her inventory. "I never gave this back to you. I was thinking... Now that the monster's gone, you should destroy her room."

"We can..?" Ram asked as Rom took her staff back and Neptune nodded.

"Uh huh." Neptune smiled at her. "Go wild, destroy everything, just don't hit me with anything." She wondered what they would do if they had carte blanche to do what they wanted with Blanc's old room. "Besides, it's not like that monster will need it, she's gone now."

Three seconds later, the two were screaming as they smashed things in the room.

"BREAK MY RIBS WHEN I WAS BORN?!" Rom screamed as she cast an explosion spell at the bed and Neptune was moderately surprised that the bed wasn't blown into pieces from that. "Beat me so badly that I couldn't sit for a week!?" She cried and cast several fire spells on the bed, igniting it. "And... And... Making Ram shove my magic staff up my butt! HOW DARE YOU!?"

Neptune boggled and looked at Ram, hoping that she wasn't going to reveal something worse.

"This was for making me walk around Lowee naked!" Ram smashed a chair with several jet bursts of water. "And... And... And not treating Rom when she got bitten by that doggie!"

As they finished breaking things, both of them glared at a large portrait picture of Blanc that hung against the far wall. "AND THIS IS FOR CHOPPING COMPA'S ARMS OFF BECAUSE SHE HEALED US!" They screamed and unleashed a combination of lightning and water onto the portrait, shattering it and the wall behind it.

"Nep woah..." Neptune stared at the two of them. "Are you two..?" She trailed off as they looked at her smiling happily.

"Big sis..." Ram began and walked towards Neptune.

"Thank you." Rom finished as they got to Neptune and hugged her tightly.

Before Neptune could say anything a single piece of paper floated in the air in front of her. "Huh?" Grabbing it, Neptune realized that it was a photo. "What's this?" She asked and turned it over. Her eyes widened and she gasped loudly, causing Rom and Ram to stop hugging her and look what was on it.

What they saw shocked them. A small, adorable girl, clinging desperately to a massive teddy bear. She was wearing pajamas and behind her was a white haired woman that none of them recognized looking at the girl with a look of utter contempt and disgust. The small girl's eyes were closed and there were a expression of fear and despair on her lovely features. The little girl's eyes were shut and Neptune, Rom and Ram had no way to know what color they were, but the brown-colored hair on her head and the over-all facial features left no doubt in any of their minds.

It had to be Blanc, who would become CPU White Void, back before she became a CPU of Lowee. A small reminder of the times of innocence, when there was a cute and adorable angel, before her death and rebirth into a devil.

Neptune wondered why Blanc, despite becoming evil, kept this photograph. 'Maybe, deep down, she hated what she became and longed for the days when she wasn't a CPU.' Sure, it was no picnic to be a CPU Candidate in this world, but at least the CPU Candidates still had a heart and could feel emotions and love. 'I'm so sorry, Blanc... I wish I had gotten here before you became a CPU.'

"Is that..?" Ram began, getting a nod from Neptune.

"Yeah... That little girl is Blanc." Neptune said softly and looked at Rom. "...What do you..?" She tapered off as Rom took the picture and stared at it for awhile, no expression on her face.

After awhile, the photograph burst into flames in Rom's hands. Turning, Rom walked to the door and stopped after taking a couple of steps. "...I want nothing to do with that monster, I want no memory of her ever existing. She's not my big sister."

Neptune bit her lower lip as she heard that. 'That's not good.' She knew that Rom and Ram needed to get over their trauma, but this felt like Rom was burying how she felt instead of dealing with it.

Before anyone could say anything, there was a flash of light and Purple Heart was sitting in the wheel chair. Before Rom could react, Purple Heart grabbed her and pulled her into a hug, letting the girl rest her head on Purple Heart's breasts. "Rom," Purple Heart began, her deeper and more sensual voice felt warm and almost motherly to Rom, who was tense, but slowly relaxing as she rested her head on Purple Heart's chest, "I've raised three girls, I have a younger sister back home, I have plenty of friends who have held stuff inside and let it fester."

"Um..." Ram was in front of Purple Heart and fidgeting slightly, when Purple Heart smiled and opened an arm, Ram was in her lap, causing Purple Heart to wince in slight pain, and Ram rested her head on Purple Heart's open breast, sighing happily as Purple Heart hugged them both.

"Rom, you must never hold in such negative emotions." Purple Heart said in a voice that soothed both CPU Candidates while rocking back and forth. "Please, Rom, talk to me. I want to help you. I'm your big sister, aren't I?"

Rom trembled and started sobbing, as did Ram, when they heard that. Between the soft and warm embrace that Purple Heart was giving them, the feeling of comfort from Purple Heart's breasts and those kind words, especially when they were tied to "big sister", were too much and the two girls couldn't help but cry.

Purple Heart smiled softly. She knew that they'd be crying a lot more in the future as more and more of their pain, anguish and suffering was let go, and she would do all that she could to help them. 'I'm not doing this for you, Histy. I'm doing this because I want to.'

She wondered just what the other CPU Candidates were going through. And she wondered if Leanbox even had a CPU Candidate. 'Boy, Vert's going to be pissed that an evil version of her got a sister and she still doesn't have one if that's the case.'

"Oh, there you are." A voice had Purple Heart looking up as she saw Linda standing at the doorway. "We got trouble." She jerked a thumb over her shoulder.

"Huh?" Purple Heart looked confused, as did Rom and Ram, as they looked at the green haired girl.

(-)

A few minutes later...

"Chrome?" Purple Heart asked as Linda wheeled her at high speeds towards the source of the commotion. "What's going on?"

Chrome sighed and opened the window and Purple Heart could hear chanting and cries for the death of Rom and Ram, both of whom cringed as they heard it.

Purple Heart sighed and put Rom and Ram down and got up out of the wheel chair despite her leg being in a cast, and she noted that the cast was still on her leg despite the transformation, she hobbled forward with help from Chrome. "People of Lowee!" She spoke to the crowd loudly but firmly, causing them to quiet down as they looked at the CPU who stood before them. "I understand your concerns about CPU Candidate Rom and CPU Candidate Ram, but please..."

"They're going to turn into monsters!"

"We need to kill them before they transform!"

"KILL!"

"KILL!"

"KILL!"

Purple Heart twitched and took a deep breath to calm herself down, she knew that they were upset at the way things were, but that didn't mean she had to like it. "ENOUGH!" She yelled and pounded her hands on the rail, causing the crowds to stop what they were doing. "What you are doing now will only cause them harm and will likely cause them to become the monsters you fear they might become!" She saw the looks of trepidation among the crowd and Purple Heart continued. "Please, I ask of you, leave them in my care." The crowd started to murmur in confusion and she could feel the confusion from Chrome, Rom and Ram. "It is one of the jobs of a CPU to guide a CPU Candidate." She smiled softly. "I, CPU Purple Heart, will do all that I can to ensure that neither CPU Candidate Rom nor CPU Candidate Ram will turn into Voids, but instead turn into Hearts that will guide and protect their people."

"Do..." Ram spoke up and Purple Heart turned to look at her as both she and Rom looked at Purple Heart in confusion, worry and hope. "Do you mean it?"

Purple Heart nodded to them and turned back to the crowd. "Do you want another Void to be born?! Or do you want a Heart?" She swung her arm to the side. "I am CPU Purple Heart and I ask, no," in a move that shocked everyone, Purple Heart lowered her head to the crowd, "I beg of you, citizens of Lowee. Please, grant me the chance to guide these two to become proper CPUs."

There was silence, even the air itself seemed to be still.

Linda couldn't believe what she was seeing. 'THIS is a CPU?! But she's so... HUMBLE!' Everything that she knew about CPUs said that they were arrogant, prideful and would refuse to do anything like this.

Rom wanted to run to Purple Heart and hug her, but she couldn't move. 'Is this what it means to be a real CPU?'

'Do you have to listen to the people?' Ram asked herself, comparing how Blanc did things and how Purple Heart was currently acting.

Purple Heart actually hated what she was doing. 'To throw away my pride like this...' She knew it had to be done, but as a Goddess she had an image to uphold. She didn't care for "being above mortals" like some Divine Beings out there might, but acting like this was almost physically painful. 'After all, what kind of person would follow a worthless...'

Her thoughts were cut off as she heard some cheering. Raising her head, she saw the people and could feel the anger changing to adoration, respect and... Actual faith, causing Purple Heart's eyes to widen in surprise. 'You're kidding me...'

"Raise yourself and stand tall and proud," Chrome smiled at Purple Heart, "CPUs shouldn't grovel to the people after all."

"You're right." Purple Heart smirked softly and stood tall towards the people. "I thank you, citizens of Lowee, for giving me a chance to guide these two on a proper path. I ask of you to forget your past pain and walk forward to a new future with proper CPUs protecting you."

There was a cheer in the crowd and Purple Heart waved before nodding to Chrome, who helped her back to her wheel chair, where she sat down and was rolled inside before she turned back into her human form. "PHEW! That was hard." Neptune giggled softly. "I'm glad that none of them raised too much of a stink about a Goddess that can't walk."

"Um... Big sis Neptune..." Ram spoke up, causing Neptune to look at her. "Did you mean what you said?"

Neptune nodded and smiled at her. "Uh huh! I'll help you become a proper CPU that gathers shares from their people, not that icky fearicite stuff."

"...Speaking of which," Chrome spoke up, "we should check on the Fearicite." The others looked at her and she sighed. "I don't like that stuff either, but we should see what's going on and we can make a plan from there."

(-)

It didn't take long for the group to make it to the Fearicite chamber. Neptune was rather surprised that this room was so easy to find but just shrugged it off as a thing that was common across all dimensions. As they entered the room, Neptune, Rom and Ram all shivered and Neptune saw Chrome looking ahead but she also saw goosebumps across the elder woman's visible skin.

"That's Fearicite?" Linda, who had been pushing Neptune, stared at the glowing red and black rock in the center of the room. "So now what..?"

There was a sudden surge of power and everyone was pushed back against the walls before red energy tendrils erupted from the Fearicite, reached forward and grabbed Neptune, lifting her up and pulling her towards the Fearicite crystal.

"Nep-wha?!" Neptune yelled and gasped as the crystal pulled her in so fast that she couldn't react. There was a flash of light and Purple Heart transformed, her wings active as she held her sword, which was fully repaired, while glaring at the Fearicite crystal. "I see, you really are full of nasty surprises, huh? You want me to become a Void in White Void's place?" The red tendrils ran across Purple Heart's body and the CPU shivered in disgust at the way the energy was casually rubbing her legs, thighs, stomach, boobs, butt and other body parts. "Too bad!" She yelled as she started to glow. "I am CPU Purple HEART!" She yelled as her power forced the tendrils to get blown away. To everyone watching, they saw a Goddess, a true Goddess floating there proudly and glaring at the crystal. "And you will cause this world no more pain and suffering!" She swung her sword at the crystal. "Now vanish on my Dual Edge!"

Chrome watched as Purple Heart shattered the Fearicite crystal and looked at Rom and Ram to see if they were okay.

Part of her sighed in relief as they seemed unaffected by it.

Another part of her realized that they were just like every other CPU and CPU Candidate of Gamworld. 'That's actually somewhat reassuring, I guess.' She mentally shrugged, it wasn't too big of a deal at least.

"Chrome..." Purple Heart turned to look at Chrome. "We need to talk."

Chrome raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Linda, will you take Rom and Ram and head to the meeting room? IF, Compa, Warechu, Filyn, Gust, and Artisan should be there by now."

Linda nodded and herded the two kids out of the room, leaving Purple Heart and Chrome alone.

"You wanted to talk," Chrome said to her, "we're alone. What is it?"

Purple Heart gave her a sharp look. "...You're a CPU, aren't you?" She was expecting a look of surprise, of shock, or denials, laughter even.

When Chrome merely raised an eyebrow, Purple Heart wasn't sure how to respond. "What gave me away?"

"Nothing, I took a stab in the dark." Purple Heart smirked as Chrome face-faulted. "Well, besides the whole carrying an axe that no normal person could lift if they wanted to, not to mention that you swung it around with ease. Plus you knew that a CPU shouldn't beg and grovel. And your reaction to the Fearicite was pretty similar to mine, Rom and Ram's."

"That's it?" Chrome raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm surprised you aren't commenting on how I knew that people's faith in you was what powered you instead of fear." She sighed at the amused look on Purple Heart's face. "Yes. I'm a former CPU of Gamworld. My name is Chrome Heart and Filyn is my CPU Candidate."

Purple Heart motioned for her to continue with the story.

"...The whole situation happened over sixty years ago." Chrome sighed and sat down on the floor to tell Purple Heart. "It was just after Filyn was born, a month after she had came into this world. I knew of problems in some of the other nations, that some of the CPUs were less than savory, but all five nations basically kept to themselves. So long as the problems weren't in our nations, we ignored the others."

"...Five?" Purple Heart asked, confused. "What nation were you?"

"Eden," Chrome answered her, "we specialized in 2-D games like platformers, fighters and shooters." Purple Heart nodded at her. "I'm asking you not to tell Filyn about any of this. Right after she was born, the world changed into what you see now and..." Chrome sighed and looked down, a clearly disturbed look on her face, "Filyn and I were in the Sharicite room when the crystal stopped glowing and fell to the ground, shattering into pieces. The warm green glow in the room suddenly turned red and cold and a new crystal took its place."

"Fearicite." Purple Heart said, getting a nod from Chrome.

"Yes. Afterwords a new CPU formed in front of us." Chrome shook her head. "She batted me away with ease and held Filyn by the side of her head and destroyed my sister's eye." Her eyes shimmered as though she wanted to cry, but nothing came out. "I was helpless to help her then. The CPU threw Filyn to me and told me that she was feeling generous and would allow me to live if I left Eden."

"You ran, huh?"

Chrome nodded and trembled at the memory of that time. "I fled to Lowee, it was the closest nation, but I found that the CPU there had been killed by a new type of CPU, a Void. I panicked and fled with Filyn to the South of Lowee and set up an encampment there and helped people flee the CPU. I kept Filyn a secret from everyone for decades. She was in a coma the whole time, so it was easy."

"She woke up..." Purple Heart said, getting a nod from Chrome.

"About five years ago. I made up a story that I found her while going for a walk and she had no memory, so I was going to act as her big sister." Chrome sighed heavily. "I don't know what happened in the other nations, all the lands changed drastically after the Voids took over." She looked down and leaned forward, her hands on the ground as she lowered her head, her hair acting as a curtain to cover her face as she tried to cry, but the tears that she could produce had long since dried up over the decades of hiding in isolation.

Chrome looked up as she felt a hand on her shoulders. Raising her head, her hair parted and she saw the kind eyes of Purple Heart looking at her, not holding any judgement, but with kindness and understanding.

"There are times, Chrome, that no matter how strong we are, we cannot do things on our own." Purple Heart told her as Chrome got to one knee while looking up at Purple Heart. "I've been beaten, captured, tentacled, brainwashed, fought against my sister more than once, fought my own brainwashed daughter for ten years, and through it all, I had help. You had no help and you had to do this on your own."

Chrome smiled at her. "Thank you. But please," her smile changed to an expression of worry, "don't tell the others. They aren't ready to know the truth just yet."

"Of course." Purple Heart smiled and sat back, transforming back into Neptune. "Now, we need to get to that meeting room, I got a BIG announcement to make!"

Chrome raised an eyebrow and got behind the wheel chair and pushed it. "Well, whatever it is, I'll support you."

(-)

It took them all of five minutes to get to the meeting room.

"So, everyone's here." Chrome said as she pushed Neptune into the room. "Neptune has a big announcement, I guess."

Neptune nodded, but her typical smile wasn't on her face as she looked at the room. On her left was Rom, Ram, Gust, Financier and Compa, on her right was IF, Linda, Warechu, Artisan and Chrome. "Listen up, everyone. I've decided... I'm going to the other nations."

To be continued...

* * *

That whole bit with "death and rebirth as a CPU", well... As a Candidate, they're not horrible people, but then they get consumed by the Fearicite and transform into Voids, forever changing who they are. You know, like how Obi-Wan said that Vader killed Anakin? Same thing.

And yes, some of you already guessed that Chrome was a CPU.


	12. Interlude: White

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

So... Who wants to see what happened in the past with Blanc?

...No one?

Too bad! You're getting an interlude!

* * *

Interlude: White

"What's this?" The CPU of Lowee sneered as she looked at the Fearicite crystal as it glowed and pulsed. Before she could get an answer from anything, there was a blinding flash of light. When the light died down, she looked at the Fearicite crystal once more and saw a new person there. "...Who are you?"

"Um... I'm Blanc," the short, petite girl smiled softly. "Who are you?"

"I'm the CPU of Lowee, that means you're my younger sister." The white-haired woman stared at Blanc. The newly born CPU Candidate had short, brown hair, blue eyes and was wearing a white sundress. "You're Lowee's CPU Candidate then."

"I see," Blanc smiled at her big sister and walked towards her. "I'm glad that I can..."

The next thing Blanc knew, she was on the ground, her face stinging.

"Let's get one thing straight." Her elder sister sneered and turned her back on Blanc, who was holding her cheek in confusion. "I do not care for you." She turned her head to look at Blanc. "But it's my job to mold you into a CPU." A smirk came to her face. "I guarantee you... It will be fun. For me, not for you."

Blanc wondered what that meant. "But..."

Her sister suddenly spun and kicked her in the back as hard as she could, sending the newly born CPU Candidate flying across the room. "NEVER SPEAK TO ME WITHOUT MY PERMISSION, YOU LITTLE SHIT SUCKER!"

The CPU growled at Blanc as she started to cry. "Just shut up. You're going to be the CPU one day, maybe, so you might want to learn to toughen up." She smirked as she walked up to the brown-haired girl and reached down and under the girl's skirt to grab her panties and pulled them up between Blanc's butt hard enough that she lifted Blanc off the ground like that. "Oh the fond memories we'll have of each other." She chuckled and carried Blanc out of the room by her underwear.

The cries of pain only made her laugh.

(-)

Five years later...

Blanc trembled as she limped out of the Basilicom. "Sis was really mean today." She looked at her foot as it dragged across the ground uselessly after her sister broke her ankle. 'Why?' Blanc thought to herself as tears fell from her eyes. 'What did I do wrong? Why does she hate me so much?'

Even the citizens of Lowee hated her. Most everyone just looked at her with contempt and disgust. Her sister even brought her out to the town square and told the citizens to beat her until she was pissing and shitting blood. "I hate them all so much." She could feel a nasty, cold, vile sensation in her chest eating away at her.

After several minutes, Blanc found herself in an alleyway, where she sank to the ground and trembled before crying. 'Why? Why do they all hate me so much?'

She got no answer as she cried herself to sleep. Even if someone found her and beat her or even killed her, she wouldn't care. Her life had been nothing but pain and suffering after all.

(-)

Hours later...

Blanc sighed as she felt something warm and comfortable around her. 'Am I dreaming?' Perhaps she had died? 'After all, this is too nice for me.' Slowly opening an eye, she looked around the room. "...Where am I?"

"You're awake." A voice spoke up and Blanc looked as a young woman with long brown hair and brown eyes who was wearing brown leggings, a blue shirt with a barrette on her head walked into the room. "I was worried when I saw how badly your leg was messed up."

"...Who are you?"

"Name's C-Sha." She smiled at Blanc. "What's your name?"

"...Blanc." Blanc answered as she gave C-Sha a suspicious look.

"Blanny, huh?" C-Sha smiled at Blanc. "Nice to meet you."

Blanc blinked at the name. "...Blanny?" C-Sha nodded and Blanc sighed and looked down. "...Why? Are you just going to make me feel nice before beating me up too?"

"Huh?" C-Sha gave her a confused look. "What do you mean?" She sighed as Blanc looked away and was silent. "I can't help you, Blanny, if you don't..."

"You know who I am." Blanc looked at C-Sha. "I'm the CPU Candidate of Lowee."

"Oh!" C-Sha's eyes widened as she realized what that meant. "So you're next in line to become a Void, huh?" Blanc nodded at her. "Hmm, that sucks."

Blanc said nothing, knowing that C-Sha would leave her now that she knew and... "Huh?" Blanc blinked as a portable gaming device was plopped in front of her. "What?" She blinked and looked at C-Sha.

"Wanna play some fighting games?" C-Sha asked, smiling.

"...Sure." Blanc wasn't sure why C-Sha was playing with her, but it was kind of nice.

(-)

One year later...

The CPU of Lowee frowned as she saw Blanc leave the Basilicom with a small smile on her face. "What is going on?" She asked no one in particular. "That little bitch should have transformed by now." Something was causing her heart to not be completely filled with rage, hate and despair. "Well..." She smirked as a black glow covered her body. "Time to see just what's going on."

(-)

"C-Sha!" Blanc smiled as she ran up to her friend. "We're hunting monsters today?" The two were at the edges of the jungle of Lowee.

"Yep." C-Sha smiled at Blanc. It had taken her so many months to get Blanc to even smile a little and no matter how badly injured or sad Blanc was, C-Sha was there for her, offering her support and holding her when she was crying and fixing her body when she was dealing with broken bones and other injuries. "You ready, Blanny?"

Blanc nodded and pulled out a large hammer. "Yes, I'll..."

"So THIS is why you're still a worthless little shit, huh?" A voice that had Blanc turn pale suddenly spoke up and both she and C-Sha slowly turned and looked up into the sky at the CPU of Lowee.

"L-l-l-lady Red Void..." C-Sha gulped and trembled. "I was just..."

"Shut up!" Red Void snarled as she flew to the ground. Her processor was a red one-piece that covered her modest breasts, crotch and butt with knee-high boots and elbow-length gloves on her hands. "It's because of you... It's because of you!" She screamed and flew at C-Sha, only to find Blanc was in front of her. "Move it, you little shit stain."

Blanc shook her head. "NO! Why?! Why are you so damn mean to me all the time?! WHAT DID I DO TO YOU?!"

"You were born." Red Void snarled at her. "If you didn't want me to treat you like this, you shouldn't have been born. It's your own sad, pathetic fate that you ended up like this."

"What are you talking about?" C-Sha asked, getting a sigh from Red Void.

"Because, you idiot, you need to feel fear, hatred, pain and suffering and nothing more, in order to transform." Red Void shook her head. "And thanks to this little slut," she snorted at C-Sha's attire, "you've been feeling happiness."

"S...So what?" Blanc trembled. "I won't let you, GAH!" She cried out as Red Void grabbed her by her throat, lifted her up and slammed her hard on the ground.

"Just shut up." Red Void suddenly had an idea and looked at C-Sha before grinning. "Oh, Blanc..." Blanc sniffled as Red Void let go of her. "I'll tell you what. I'll stop hurting you."

Blanc stared at her. "You... You will?" She felt a stirring of hope. If her sister was going to stop tormenting her she could finally enjoy herself.

"Yes," Red Void smirked at Blanc. "But... On one condition." She leaned in close to Blanc and pointed at C-Sha. "Kill her."

"...Wh...What?" Blanc asked, trembling as her eyes started to water. "What do you mean, kill her?"

C-Sha trembled and backed up. "Blanny, you..."

"She's not really your friend," Red Void smirked at her, "she's just scared you'll become a Void, so she's giving you nice feelings so that you won't transform. But don't worry, Blanc... I promise to stop torturing you if you kill her."

"I... I..." Blanc trembled and looked at C-Sha. Memories of the time they played together, of when C-Sha took her for walks, when C-Sha fed her and even bathed her. "I...I can't..."

"Blanny..." C-Sha smiled at her.

"If you can't," Red Void pulled out a blaster pistol. "Then I will!" She pointed at C-Sha and pulled the trigger.

"NO!" Blanc screamed as she watched C-Sha's chest explode in an eruption of blood, bone and gore. As C-Sha fell to the ground, not moving and blood covered Blanc's face, the little girl started to glow red as the energy pooled in front of her chest. "You... You... GAAAAAAH!"

A black energy pillar surrounded Blanc as her screams of agony filled the sky.

"About fucking time." Red Void smirked as she waited for the light to fade away.

"You bitch..." White Void glared at Red Void. "I'll kill you!"

Red Void smirked at her. "Please, do try."

(-)

Minutes later...

White Void stared at the broken and dead body of Red Void and started chuckling. "I did it. You fucking bitch I..." She turned and saw C-Sha's body not too far away. "Oh no! C-Sha!" Running over, she quickly picked up the dying girl. "Talk to me."

"Hey..." C-Sha coughed, blood coming out of her mouth. "Blanny... I'm sorry."

"Don't talk." White Void whispered to C-Sha, tears falling out of her eyes. "I won't let you die, I promise. We'll get you to a healer and..."

C-Sha smiled at her. "It's... Too late... For me. But... Blanny... Please... Don't..." She couldn't finish her statement as her life finally came to an end and she closed her eyes forever.

"C-Sha..?" White Void shook her. "C-Sha?" She shook her some more. "C-SHA!" She screamed to the heavens as her friend, the only person who was ever kind to her, died in her arms.

Her eyes glowing, White Void snarled and looked at Lowee City. "They'll pay! THEY'LL ALL PAY!" She screamed and carried C-Sha back to the Basilicom.

After burying C-Sha's corpse in the flower garden in front of her room, White Void turned to the city of Lowee and let out a massive scream of anger. "NONE OF YOU HELPED ME! NONE OF YOU HELPED HER! NONE OF YOU DESERVE TO LIVE!"

It was said that by the time White Void's anger had finally relented, anywhere from fifteen to thirty percent of all the citizens of Lowee had met their end at her hand.

It would be known as the day of the Bloody Void, and the start of the terror that was White Void.

End Interlude White

* * *

...No, I wasn't twirling a mustache and going "Nyahahahahahaha! I shall make them all cry!"

But man, poor Blanc.


	13. End of Lowee

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Just a reminder that this fic is rated M and the ending of this chapter will remind you about that.

* * *

Chapter 11

"WHAT?!" More than one person yelled in shock as Neptune said that. In fact, everyone but Chrome had yelled that in shock.

"Oww..." Neptune stuck her pinky into her right ear and wiggled her hand up and down. "I hope I didn't get Tinnitus from that. Ear ringing sucks."

"You might want to explain what you mean." Chrome said to Neptune. "I'm a bit confused as well. What's with the sudden idea?"

"It's not sudden." Neptune answered her. "First of all, I wanna know how the other nations are." The others nodded, that sounded reasonable enough, "and I wanna save the other CPU Candidates."

"There are others?" Rom asked, a surprised look on her face as Neptune turned to look at her. "Are you sure?"

"Yep." Neptune nodded at her. "There should be a CPU Candidate in Lastation and Planeptune. I dunno if it'll be exactly like I know it, but if it is, that'll be Uni and Nepgear."

"Nep...gear..?" IF sounded the name out. "Wait, that sounds like..."

"Yeah," Neptune turned to her and nodded. "She's my little sister." She sighed from the looks of confusion everyone was giving her, Neptune just smiled. "Okay, so, like... I'm Neptune, CPU of Planeptune in Gamindustri of the Hyperdimension." She had a flat stare as everyone, including Chrome, had a look that just screamed that they didn't understand. "Boy, I didn't explain that one properly at all. Man, I wish Nep Jr. was here, she's a lot better at explaining things than I am. It's too bad that the phone she gave me doesn't work..."

A sudden ringing interrupted Neptune and caused everyone to wonder where the noise was coming from.

Neptune blinked and started digging around in her pockets as that sound was getting louder before pulling out the phone her sister had made for her. "Oh! Cool! It works now." She pressed a button on it. "Hiya! This is Neptune, the main character and I'm currently stuck in another dimension."

_"NEPTUNE!"_

"WAGH!" Neptune yelled and pulled the phone away from her ear. "OWW! Stupid speaker phone!"

_"Neptune! Are you there? Please tell me that you're okay! I've been trying to call for the past few hours!"_

"I'm fine, Nep Jr.!" Neptune smiled at her phone and everyone in the room was looking at her curiously. "Oh hey, Iffy and Compa are here with me too."

_"No I'm not! Stop lying, Nep!"_

IF jerked as she heard her voice coming out of the phone. "What the HELL?!"

_"WHAT THE HELL?! How come I can hear me from over there?!"_

Neptune giggled and grinned. "Well, Iffy, I was trying to make a pizza pocket with the microwave and I got blasted into another dimension."

_"How did you pull that off, Nep Nep?"_

"Hey, Compa!" Neptune smiled as she heard her other friend on the other side of the phone. "Well, I'm not sure. I think it has something to do with the chip that Nep Jr. put into the phone because of Darksty."

_"Is there a Histoire nearby?"_ Nep Jr.'s voice was heard again.

"Nah, not right here." Neptune answered her. "Maybe when I get to Planeptune I'll find her?"

_"Oh, there's a Planeptune in that world too? Okay, well, if you can..."_

"Uh, Nep Jr., see, there's a small problem." Neptune spoke up on the phone. "The Share bridge that we've used in the past probably won't work right now. Is Big Me or Darksty around?"

_"No, Neptune went with Uzume on another trip around Gamindustri."_

"Ah, okay." Neptune nodded. "Look, Nep Jr., I'd love to keep talking, but I got a bunch of people here wanting to ask me questions, I'll call you back later, okay?"

_"Huh? Okay. Talk to you later, Onee-chan."_

As the call ended, Neptune giggled softly. "Ah, Nepgear's a good kid."

"Well, that answers that." Chrome muttered, "another IF and Compa... I wonder if there's another... Oh, wait, didn't you call me Arfoire before?"

"Yeah, but she's a bad guy." Neptune answered as she put her phone away and looked at the group. "Okay so, like, I wanna go to the other nations, like I said, to see how they are and save their CPU Candidates. Plus..." Neptune's face became somber. "There's something else that I have to confirm."

Even if she knew she wouldn't like it. Even if she knew that it would probably hurt more than taking a beating from Noire, Vert and Blanc at the same time. Even if she knew that it would break her heart...

Neptune needed to meet with the other CPUs. She needed to know just what she was dealing with with all of them.

"Well... About that." Artisan spoke up, "I actually was working for the Basilicom for all these years," she grimaced at the looks she got and she held up her hands, "I'll have you know that I didn't agree with anything that CPU was doing!"

"Continue," Chrome said, her voice tired, "what information do you have for us?"

"Well..." Artisan grimaced. "All of Lowee's airships are out of commission. It will take us at least two months to get the two that are in the best shape to be fixed up."

"Lovely," Chrome sighed softly. "Two months, huh?"

"That's fine." Neptune spoke up, "I need to heal anyway, because who knows what we'll find in the other nations." She looked at Rom and Ram and smiled. "You hear that? You have me all to yourself for the next two months."

"So what do we do?" Filyn asked, still confused by the whole two IFs thing.

Chrome looked at Linda, Gust, Warechu and then at Artisan. "Well, most of us are going to be working to help with the airship recovery and some of us have other stuff that we're going to need to be doing."

"Well, in that case," Artisan said as she stood up and looked at Linda, Gust and Warechu, "you three are mine for the next two months."

"Nah uh." Linda shook her head, "I ain't working for free."

"Who said anything about free?" Artisan asked rhetorically. "I'll work out details with Chrome later."

"I'd rather be with Compa, chu." Warechu groused as he got up from the table. "Well, whatever, at least this isn't anything different than what I do back at the settlement."

"Gust agrees," the blue-haired girl sighed as she and Linda followed after Artisan.

"I'll join you three later." Chrome said and looked at the others in the room. "Well, do try not to do anything too crazy, huh? People are still nervous."

"There's something that needs to be reported on." Financier said after the others had left. "With no CPU, the Fearicite..."

"It went boom!" Ram interrupted the maid. "Big sis Neptune broke it into a bunch of itty bitty pieces!"

Financier let out a sigh and smiled in relief. "Good, I was worried that something horrible would happen if it continued to exist. But there's another problem..."

"How long can Lowee last without a CPU to keep it afloat?" Chrome asked, getting a nod from Financier. "That... I wish I could tell you."

"Don't you know, Chromey?" Filyn asked in confusion. "But you usually know everything."

"I'm not all knowing." Chrome answered her. "If I was, I would have dealt with the CPUs a long time ago." She shook her head and looked like she was about to leave. "Anyway, I should help deal with the airships and hope that this land doesn't fall completely apart before we get done."

"Could you stick around for a little bit?" Neptune asked, "I might need some help with something." Chrome looked at her in confusion, but nodded.

Financier stood up and smiled. "If it's okay..." She looked at Neptune, "I'd like to keep working here. I feel like I could at least do some good here as a maid rather than being a citizen running around."

"Oh!" Neptune smiled at her. "That's fine. You don't know how to make pudding do you?" Financier blinked and nodded and Neptune clapped her hands. "Excellent! Can you make some for me, Rom and Ram?" She looked at IF, Compa and Filyn, "do you three want some too?"

IF shrugged. "Sure, but it's getting close to when I need someone to rub my body down. There's spots I can't reach on my own."

"Well, in that case, I better go make a bunch." Financier said as she got up and quickly left the room.

"Can we help rub you down?" Ram asked IF nervously. "I know you don't like CPUs, maybe I can make you feel better?" She winced at the look in IF's eyes as the burned girl got up and walked away.

"Iffy!" Both Compa and Neptune yelled at her.

"Sorry," IF answered as she looked at them. "Even if she's not the monster that White Void was, I'm not going to just trust anything CPU that quickly." She gave Neptune a pointed look. "Even if you fought against her and come from another world, I still don't trust you because you're a CPU." She turned and walked to the door. "I'll put faith in you, Nep, because you're the only one who can beat the other CPUs, but I don't trust you, and I'm not the only one. I'll just go find a nurse to rub my body down."

Neptune sighed as she watched IF walk off. "Iffy..." She whispered to herself. Seeing someone who was so similar to her friend in one world and one of her daughters in another world act like this towards her was actually kind of painful to deal with.

"I'm sorry." Compa said to the others as she got up. "I'll go talk to her, maybe I can change her mind."

The others nodded and watched as Compa left the room.

As soon as she was gone, Ram buried her face into her hands and started sobbing. "I'm so sorry! I..."

"You didn't do anything wrong." Neptune answered her as she moved her wheel chair over to Ram. "It's not your fault, okay?" She sighed as Ram pounced on her and hugged her, crying softly. "Rom..." Neptune looked at Rom while rubbing Ram's back. "Don't hate Iffy, okay?"

"But!" Rom tried to protest.

"Sometimes you get people saying bad things about you." Neptune answered her. "Even back home there are some people who say bad things about me. Like I'm lazy and do nothing but sleep and make Histy and Nepgear do all the work."

"You slept for three days straight on the boat." Chrome pointed out, causing Neptune to jerk in annoyance. "But I get your point. It's not your fault, but things aren't going to be easy."

"So..." Rom began and looked at Chrome, Neptune and Ram. "What can we do to make them stop hating us?"

"Well..." Neptune began and visibly grimaced at the thought. "We're not doing anything for the next two months, right?" The others all nodded. "How about we try to see what the people need done and do it for them?"

Seeing the confused look on Rom's face, Neptune sighed, which she did again when Ram let go and gave her the same confused look. "A Goddess does all that she can for the people of her nation." Even if Neptune hated those lectures from Histoire, she couldn't deny that they were effective in making her remember what Histoire had said.

Even if she barely listened to them most of the time.

"So we should see if there's any requests that the people have and try and help them." Neptune summarized for Rom and Ram. "If the people see you out there trying to make their lives easier they'll feel more comfortable with you and like you more."

The twins looked at each other and then back to Neptune and nodded, a determined look on their faces.

Neptune just smiled at them. "Now, how about we see what there is to do."

(-)

Several minutes later...

Neptune stared in abject horror as she was carted into a room. "N...No way..." There was paperwork.

LOTS of paperwork.

There were spider webs, tons of dust and other stuff all over the paperwork.

That would be bad enough...

But the paperwork was so tall that it was reaching the ceiling.

Neptune just whimpered and wondered why she agreed to do this. "This is going to take forever to do!" She cried in despair as a desk and pen were pushed into the room.

"Sorry," Chrome answered her as Rom and Ram came into the room with their own desks, "but I think with four of us this won't take too long."

"How long has..." Neptune pulled off the top sheet of a small stack and blew the thick layer of dust and dirt off of it and stared at the date. "Um, Chrome, what year is it?"

"Hmm?" Chrome looked at the year on the paperwork and sighed. "That's from sixty years ago. I think we can ignore it."

"Oh... How about we only do the stuff that's like three years old then?" Neptune asked, getting a nod from the others as they dug into the paperwork.

It would take almost an hour before they found paperwork that was within the time frame that Neptune had suggested and the paperwork in the room was a lot smaller than it had been before as a result.

The hallway outside the room, on the other hand, had become a jungle of paper that the maids stared at in horror when they came across it. When Chrome stuck her head out of the room and informed the maids that all the paper on the floor was to be either destroyed or recycled, they were quick to act in removing the papers at least.

(-)

Meanwhile...

IF sighed as she lay on a nursing bed, completely naked as a nurse rubbed her down with the healing lotion. "Nnnngh..." She groaned in relief. "Thanks, that feels so good." IF breathed out as the nurse's fingers worked the lotion into her skin to moisten it up.

"Not a problem, Miss IF." The nurse said as she looked IF's body over. Parts of her skin was darkened to the point of looking like a strong tan, while other parts were red, yellow and blue. "If I didn't know it was impossible, I'd say that this," the nurse ran a finger down the left side of IF's back, tracing a blue streak from her left shoulder blade down to IF's butt and then swirling around the left butt cheek and across the right butt cheek until it got to the center, "was actually the fire merging with you and tattooing you like that."

"So I've been told." IF commented, not even caring that the nurse was touching and poking her butt. "It's actually heavily treated skin and skin grafts." IF told the nurse. "I didn't get the best stuff, so the different colors are probably from the skin grafts."

"Ah." The nurse nodded at her. "You can roll over now."

IF sighed and did just that as the nurse went to work rubbing IF's face, neck, down her shoulders, arms, hands, back up to her shoulders, chests, breasts, stomach and down her body.

"May I ask, Miss IF?" IF looked at the nurse as she was rubbing IF's thighs. "How bad..?"

"Bad enough that I had no hair on my body, my eyelids crumbled away and most of my skin was breaking apart and falling off." The nurse's eyes widened and looked down IF's body and IF sighed and nodded. "Yes, even there. It hurt like a BITCH to pee for months afterwords."

The nurse visibly winced and even hunched over from that. "I apologize."

"It's fine." IF said and sighed as the nurse finished up rubbing her feet down before putting a light sheet over her body. IF couldn't wear any of her clothes for nearly an hour after being rubbed down. Anything heavier than a thin bed sheet caused her so much discomfort that she would scream in pain.

Of course, if she didn't get her body rubbed down at least once every twenty-four hours she'd be a walking leather handbag really quick. Her body couldn't keep her skin from drying out and it affected the rest of her because of it.

"You know, Iffy," Compa spoke up as she walked up to the girl and stood above her, "you're being unfair to Rom and Ram."

IF scoffed at her as the nurse nodded to them and left the room. "I should be nice to those little monsters?" The next thing she knew Compa was squeezing her nose with those hooked hands. "Oww! Dah hurts!" Her eyes teared up as Compa spread the hooks on her right hand and let go of IF's nose. "Why?"

"Because you know that they've suffered a lot too." Compa gave her a stern look. "Yes, I know what White Void did to you and I feel really bad for you, Iffy. But I worked here at the Basilicom, remember?" Her stern look evaporated into a sad one. "I took care of those kids for months before my arms got chopped off. You don't know how bad it was, Iffy. She made Rom and Ram go through so much. There were days they weren't allowed to eat and I went to sneak them food." Compa looked down and trembled, "I had to treat broken bones more than once for them. And that wasn't including some of their other injuries and stuff that they had to go through."

"Compa..." IF sighed softly. "I just... Can't trust them."

"Please, Iffy..." Compa gave her a sad look. "If you can't trust them... Please, trust Nep Nep then." IF gave her a confused look and Compa gave her a soft smile in return. "Nep Nep wants to help them. I think we can trust her." She turned and walked away from IF. "And if you can't trust Nep Nep after she fought against White Void..." Compa turned her head to give IF a look of pure pity. "Then that's just sad."

IF said nothing as Compa left her alone in her thoughts.

(-)

Neptune hated doing paperwork, but she knew it was important for a nation to run properly.

Some of the stuff she was seeing just made her want to gouge her eyes out though. 'Ugh, no wonder no one did any of this.' She mentally groused as she, Chrome, Rom and Ram all sat at portable desks and worked on the paperwork. Neither she nor Chrome had any reason to do this other than to pass time. Plus with her broken leg and other injuries it wasn't like she was going to be running around for awhile anyway.

The fact that the two of them could steer Rom and Ram to the path of being a proper CPU had nothing to do with it.

"I want to see a naked CPU?" Rom asked as she read the request in confusion. "Why would this person want to see us naked?"

"People like that are bad perverts and you should try to avoid them." Neptune told her seriously. "It's different for full CPUs because most of us look like adults," Yellow Heart was a notable example, despite the fact that she had a body that even Neptune had to admit she wouldn't mind doing lewd things to. However, with the fact that the CPU had the mentality of a five year old thanks to Peashy being forever stuck at that age, both she and Plutia had to take some extreme steps to protect Yellow Heart from perverts. It wasn't always successful, but most everyone in the Ultradimension version of Planeptune knew that it wasn't okay to try and lewd Yellow Heart, unless they didn't have a problem dealing with a very angry Iris Heart that is. There wasn't much they could do about people who had lewd thoughts about Yellow Heart, but so long as those people never acted on it, no one had any real problem with it. Even if it was creepy, "but CPU Candidates should never see bad perverts like that."

"Have you ever had anyone who wanted to see you naked, big sis Neptune?" Ram asked as she looked up from the paperwork she was doing.

"A few times." Neptune admitted, a soft blush on her face. "It's not very often, so don't worry about it."

The last time someone had tried to get her naked had been Vert, who had been crashing at her Basilicom while the Basilicom in Leanbox was going through renovations, when she had gotten into their supply of root beer and stumbled her way into Neptune's room before declaring, in no uncertain terms, that she would have Nepgear as her little sister and if she couldn't steal Nepgear away she was going to ruin Neptune for marriage for anyone else.

'She got me naked too!' Neptune's blush increased at the memory. That night had been... Interesting, for a lack of a better word. 'Who knew that Vert was so skilled with her...'

"Big sis Neptune..?" Ram interrupted her thoughts and stopped Neptune from fully remembering what happened that night. "Are you okay? You look like you have steam coming out of your ears."

"...Let's just ignore that and get back to doing the paperwork, okay?" Neptune asked, her voice tense as she tried to get her blush to go away.

The other three nodded and went through the paperwork.

Neptune knew that if the others could see her back home that they'd all have a heart attack knowing that she was willingly doing paperwork.

(-)

One month later...

"Here you go." Rom smiled at the old lady as she helped the old woman get home from shopping. She tensed and prepared for another person to hit her for trying to help them. Even though Neptune had told her and Ram to help the people, even if they weren't grateful, it was still hard when there was hardly anyone who was willing to give them a chance.

Still, things had been getting better. The people in the city were... Happier than she ever remembered them being. Rom didn't know why, but seeing them like that made her feel warm and a bit tingly. It felt really nice and she wanted more of it.

The old woman smiled at Rom. "Thank you. It's nice to see that things are getting better thanks to Lady Purple Heart." Rom nodded as the woman's grandchildren came out of the house to help the old woman back in, none of them spared Rom a second glance.

As she walked away, Rom sighed, sad that people were still not trusting them fully. As she walked past a large window, Rom stopped to look at her reflection and smiled softly. She wasn't wearing her old outfit anymore as Neptune had forced her and Ram to get new clothes. Rom still remembered the trip to the clothing store.

*Flash*

"Lady Purple Heart!" The store clerk, a young girl with short brown hair, smiled as she saw Neptune walk in, on crutches, with Rom and Ram right behind her. "How can I help you?"

"You don't need to be so formal." Neptune giggled nervously. She really wished her leg was healed already. 'A few more days and I'll be good.' She thought to herself. "Anyway," she nodded at Rom and Ram, "I was thinking... These two need new clothes."

"Of course." The clerk smiled and looked the two girls over. "Anything in particular?"

"Um..." Ram spoke up, "do I need new pants? These are really comfy and hide all the scars that I have on my legs."

Both Neptune and the store clerk grimaced, knowing just why Ram had those scars. "Well..." Neptune trailed off. "I guess yoga pants aren't the worst thing you could wear. What about you Rom?"

"I like shorts." Rom answered her. "Do I need to wear pants?"

"Oh! I have just the thing for you, Lady Rom." The clerk smiled at Rom.

"Hmm..." Neptune looked at Ram and then at the clerk. "Do you have a small skirt that Ram can wear around her waist then?"

"Yes, we have those." The clerk smiled and led the twins through the store while Neptune went to sit down.

By the time they were done, Rom was wearing loose shorts that went down past her knees, a short-sleeved shirt that was loose on her body and Neptune could swear that Rom was fighting the urge to squeal in delight with how the fabric felt on her body.

Ram was still wearing the same Yoga pants as before, but she was wearing a mini-skirt over them to cover up her butt and keep people from drooling over it and she was wearing a nice blue t-shirt with a pink mushroom on the front. She was still wearing her small jacket.

Neptune smiled as she saw that and the clothes that were being carried out. "So, how much is this going to..?"

"Nothing!" The clerk smiled at Neptune, causing Neptune, Rom and Ram to jerk in surprise. "You..." She walked up to Neptune and got down to one knee and bowed to her. "You saved everyone, Lady Neptune, White Void killed my parents when I was ten because she spilled ice-cream when they bumped into her. You saved all of us, I could never charge you money for this."

"Uh..." Neptune scratched her cheek nervously. "Listen, that's great and all, but you don't need to act like this." The girl looked at her in confusion. "I might be a goddess, but I've never liked acting like I was better than the people." After all, she'd rather be a friendly goddess that people could relate to than one they worshiped and kept at a distance.

Neptune sweat-dropped as the clerk started babbling about how great she was. While it was great for her ego, it also showed just how screwed up this world really was.

*End Flashback*

Recently, Neptune had surprised everyone when she revealed that her leg had fully healed a few days ago and she was taking care of monsters in the nearby forests with Chrome at that moment while Rom worked with Ram and Filyn to help the people around the city.

Even though Rom and Ram got a lot of looks that just screamed "I don't trust you" from the people, it was becoming less and less as the days went by.

"Rom!" She turned to see Filyn, who called her out, and Ram, walking up to her with some bags in their hands. "We just scored some free treats. Want to go eat them?"

"Sure!" Rom's eyes lit up and the three ran off to eat in peace.

(-)

In the forest...

"HIYAH!" Purple Heart cut down a large spider monster and sighed as it burst into data. "I think that's enough for today."

"Always doing the bare minimum, huh?" Chrome asked casually as she pulled out some wires that were made up of magic and metal and used them to cut apart more than a dozen dogoos in an instant.

Purple Heart almost felt bad for the dogoos. "I've been meaning to ask you." Chrome gave her a confused look, "how come you're still alive? Don't CPUs of this world need Shares to survive? Well, before the Fearicite came into being that is."

Chrome shook her head. "No. We needed shares to transform, yes, but once we become CPUs, we won't die if our shares run out or people stop believing in us or we decide to pass the mantle onto the next generation. There were a few retired CPUs from my time that lived in peace. They were useful for information." She sighed softly. "I'm pretty sure they're all dead now though. Even if they survived the world warping into what it is now, I'm sure that they were hunted down by the Voids and eliminated."

"I'm sorry." Purple Heart floated over to her. "Wait, you said become... I assume that every CPU was a CPU Candidate at one time?"

Chrome nodded at her. "Weren't you?"

Purple Heart shook her head. "No. We have something called the CPU Shift period in my dimension that causes new CPUs to be born and the old ones to disappear. There are CPU Candidates, however, but they don't necessarily become CPUs." At least that's how Uzume and Histoire had explained things since Uzume had gotten all of her memories back, including the ones Kurome had while sealed in the Heart and Zero Dimension.

"I see..." Chrome nodded and cupped her chin with her right hand and rested her right elbow on her left hand. "As for CPU Candidates, we're born from the Sharicite, Fearicite now, but until we gain the ability to transform, we're basically normal humans until then. Well, immortal humans at any rate.." She paused as she realized something important. "Wait, how have you survived in this world when you had no Shares? For that matter, how are you able to transform without a Sharicite Crystal?" Chrome couldn't do it, so how was this CPU capable of doing it?

Purple Heart transformed back into Neptune and smiled at Chrome. "Well, see, it was like twenty-five or so years ago I ended up in another world, it's called the Ultradimension," Chrome nodded at her, "well, there I met other versions of some of my friends, but there were no CPUs there. Well, not normally at least, and I was human."

Chrome gave her a surprised look.

"I know!" Neptune threw her hands up at Chrome's look. "Well, I didn't want to be stuck in a human body and grow old in case I was stuck there for a long time. So I found a class up item... What was it again? CPU Mammary or something? Well, whatever, I found one, ate it and I became a CPU again." Neptune smiled at her.

"...You had to find and eat a CPU's boobs to become a CPU?" Chrome gave her a weird look. "That's quite the unusual way of becoming a CPU if that's the case." Also incredibly disturbing and she fought the urge to cover her own chest up to protect it from people who might want to try that.

"OH!" Neptune slapped her right fist into her left open palm. "That's right! CPU MEMORY! It's a little rock that looks like a rice ball. People have to eat it and there's been more than a few people who became CPUs by accident because of it." She blushed at Chrome's stare of disbelief. "Well, anyway, not everyone can become CPUs. Most people who take one turn into horrible monsters for the rest of time. And if you take one and you can transform, you're stuck forever at whatever age you were when you took it."

"So what does that have to do with why you can transform without a Sharicite crystal?" Chrome asked, curious.

"Because the CPU Memory core can absorb shares directly. You don't need much faith to transform because of it, but the more you have the stronger you get." Neptune answered her. "Why can't you transform then? Because your Sharicite crystal broke?"

Chrome nodded as they started to walk back towards Lowee City. "Yes. While it's technically possible for me to transform without one, there would have to be an incredibly large abundance of shares first and right now that's not possible." Neptune nodded, that made sense. "I heard from Linda that they'll be done with the airship for us in two weeks. You said you were going to head to Leanbox next?"

Neptune nodded at that. "Uh huh. Leanbox is the closest nation from here according to the maps."

"I've never been to Leanbox... I wonder how badly it's fucked up." Chrome mused to herself.

Privately, Neptune wondered the same thing.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"Lady... Vert..." A man gasped as he looked at the CPU above him. She had long, blonde hair done up in a ponytail, piercing blue eyes and an incredibly large pair of breasts. Her skin had a fair complexion to it and she was wearing...

Well, nothing.

"Yes?" The naked CPU asked as she bounced on top of him, her large breasts jiggling wildly from the motions. "It's only been four rounds..." She giggled at the naked man under her. "Surely you can, nnnngh... Go longer than this?"

As he hit release once more and flopped down, Vert frowned as she felt him going soft inside of her. "Well, that's no fun. If my partners can't last more than six rounds, three times a day, they're no use to me."

"Lady..." The man trembled as she got off of him, their combined body fluids splashing out of her and onto the floor. "Please, no... I'm just so tired... I went five times yesterday and four the day before that and this is the third time today. I... I just can't."

Vert narrowed her eyes at him. "Hmm... I DO suppose you have a point. Normal humans can't be expected to keep up with MY libido after all." The man sighed and started to thank her for understanding. "I'll remember that with my next partner and I sure hope that his balls aren't as useless as yours!" She yelled and grabbed his testicles and pulled on them hard enough that there was a tearing sound.

The scream that came from Leanbox's castle could be heard all across the nation.

To be continued...

* * *

And you guys thought Blanc was bad, huh?

So, with that, I'm going to drop this warning right here and now... The Leanbox arc is going to be full of nudity, sex and lewd behavior from Vert (and others). So! If that bothers you, I am letting you know right now!


	14. Interlude: Hyperdimension

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

How about we take a quick peek back in the Hyperdimension?

* * *

Interlude: Hyperdimension

"GEAR!" IF yelled at Nepgear, who jumped in surprise as she hung up the phone. "What the hell?!"

"Um, well, Neptune said she was really busy, so I thought I'd let her take care of that and call her back later." Nepgear said, giggling nervously at the looks that both IF and Compa were giving her.

"Regardless of what Nepgear's intentions were, we do know that Neptune is still alive and even have the dimensional coordinates now." Histoire, a small blonde-haired, blue-eyed fairy-like being who floated over an open book while wearing small purple robes on her body, said as she floated over to them. "This will make it much easier to contact the me of that world."

"Um, considering that Neptune said that she wasn't near a Histoire, do you think it might be a good idea to wait for a bit?" Nepgear spoke up, slightly nervous, "Neptune did say that the share bridge wouldn't work right now."

"Hmm, I wonder why." Histoire was a bit curious. Even when Neptune and Nepgear had been trapped in the Zero Dimension, opening a share bridge to those dimensions was possible even with the CPU Shift period happening and shares being at extremely low levels, Histoire had been able to open not one but two share bridges to the Zero Dimension.

"Maybe Nep Nep's in a world where there's a bunch of bad guys and she doesn't want them getting in here?" Compa suggested, her eyes lit up as an idea hit her head. "Ooooh! Or maybe there's a bunch of space parasites and naughty tentacles and flying battleships? Or maybe there's people who are just as silly as she is and doesn't want to destroy the world from the combined silliness?"

"Considering that we could call Nep, I don't think that last one's a problem." IF muttered and shook her head. "Histoire, should we invoke the Dimension Lost Protocols?"

Histoire nodded at IF. "Yes, that might be a good idea, we have no idea how long Neptune will be gone or even if there is a time difference between the dimensions."

"Um... Dimension Lost Protocols?" Nepgear asked Histoire, who sighed softly.

"Considering how often Neptune gets lost in other dimensions for one reason or another, or even other planes of reality," Histoire still couldn't believe that Neptune ended up in more than one Netherworld in her life or that she would end up in Hell, "I devised a way to keep the country running should Neptune disappear unexpectedly."

"How come I didn't know?" Nepgear asked and looked from Histoire to IF and Compa. "Come on! No one told me!" Her eyes started to tear up and she hung her head. "Am I not a good CPU Candidate?"

"It's not that, Gear," IF said to keep Nepgear from getting too angsty, "it's that you get caught up almost as often as Nep does."

"And I don't tell Neptune because I don't want her to get her other self and go on a Dimension Vacation." Histoire told Nepgear, knowing that Neptune might do just that. "Anyway, we have several people who can run Planeptune in Neptune's stead at least..."

(-)

Several minutes later in Lastation...

"Huh?" Noire blinked as she looked at the communications screen. "Neptune's missing... AGAIN?!"

Blanc, who was also on the screen, just hung her head and sighed. "Dammit, can't she go just one month without ending up in some random crazy shit?"

Also on the screen was Vert, who shook her head and gave Histoire a look of almost pity. "So what will you do this time, Histoire?"

"I hate to ask this of you, but would you three be willing to help run Planeptune while Neptune's out? I know that Nepgear can handle most of it, but I would feel better knowing that she had some help."

"Plus you don't want her trying to build something to get Neptune back, right?" Noire smirked at Histoire. "Alright, fine, I'll help out, but Neptune's going to owe me for this."

"I apologize," Blanc shook her head. "Right now I'm dealing with some stuff in Lowee. However, if Neptune is still missing after a month, I'll be willing to help out then."

"I have to agree with Blanc," Vert said next, "I'm booked solid for a month with lots of stuff going on and I'll be busy for two months after that."

"It's fine." Histoire answered her. "I'll try to get a hold of Uzume and the other Neptune and get them back here sooner. And you don't need to do much, I'm just worried about Nepgear."

"Well..." Vert began, "I guess I can show up today for a few hours at least."

"Thank you." Histoire smiled at the Leanbox CPU.

As the screen turned off when the call ended, Noire shook her head. "Histoire played you, Vert." She didn't mind, it would mean that she didn't have to go over there to do everything. "Hmm, maybe Uni would rather go and hang out with Nepgear?"

Noire nodded and got up from her desk as she started to walk out of her office when she stopped as the door opened up and her little sister walked in. "Hey, Uni," she smiled as Uni looked at her curiously, "would you like to spend a week in Planeptune with Nepgear?"

Uni's eyes widened and her face turned red. "Wh-wh-wha-what brought this on so suddenly? You make it sound like I really miss her or something."

"Well..." Noire began and scratched her cheek while looking away slightly. "Neptune ended up getting lost in another world."

"Again?" Uni asked, her voice showing pure exasperation. "At this point, I almost feel like Nepgear runs Planeptune more than Neptune does."

Noire didn't argue it, sometimes it really did feel like Neptune was being a CPU for other worlds more than her own. "Well, Nepgear has to run Planeptune all by herself for awhile until Neptune gets back. I was thinking that Nepgear would feel pretty lonely without a friend over there for a little while."

Uni blushed and squirmed slightly. "Um... Are you suggesting that I spend a week with Nepgear... Alone?"

Noire nodded and fought the urge to smirk as Uni's blush increased tremendously. "You're a big girl, so I trust that you'll be fine. I'm sure that Nepgear will enjoy having you over too."

"Will you be fine?" Uni asked, concern in her voice and on her face. "You won't get so lonely that you'll make some strange friends and do weird or lewd things that you'll regret later, will you?"

Noire's eyes went white and blank in anger. "What's with that?! Have you been spending time with Neptune when I wasn't looking or something?! That's something she would say!"

"I'm sorry!" Uni yelled and turned to run while Noire chased after her. "But I worry about you, sis!"

"I'll show you!" Noire suddenly pounced on Uni, tackling her little sister to the ground. "Just for that... TICKLE TIME!"

"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Uni cried out as Noire's fingers found all of her ticklish spots instantly. "I'm sorry! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"No quarter given to little sisters who think their big sister would do something naughty!" Noire proudly declared and smiled as she tickled Uni, who was squirming and thrashing to avoid the sensations. After a minute Noire stopped and got off of Uni, who was laying on her side and panting hard as she tried to calm down.

"Mouu..." Uni pouted after she recovered and stood up with Noire's help. "That wasn't fair, Noire." She pouted and blushed as Noire ruffled her hair.

"I'm not always fair, Uni." Noire smiled softly, "besides, I just felt like it."

"Now who's been spending too much time with Neptune?" Uni grinned back at her. "But, um..." Uni took a step forward and hugged Noire. "Thanks, sis. Will you be fine?"

"Yeah." Noire hugged Uni back. It was so nice to actually be close with her sister like this. 'Why were we ever distant to each other in the past?' It just felt so stupid and silly, like they had wasted time when they could have spent it in better ways.

After they broke apart, Noire nodded to Uni, who ran off, leaving Noire alone. "Hmm... A week at home alone?" She suddenly giggled and turned to run to her room.

Now she could work on those more racy and naughty cosplays and not worry about anyone walking into her room.

End Interlude

* * *

That was both funnier and more heartwarming than I had originally intended. XD

Oh well, just a final breather episode. Next chapter they're off to Leanbox!


	15. Departure

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

If I posted this as fast as I wrote it, I'd be posting chapters multiple times a day some days.

* * *

Chapter 12

A couple of weeks later...

Purple Heart smiled as she walked out onto the balcony of the Basilicom. "Citizens of Lowee, thank you for showing up today." She spoke to the crowd that had gathered. "Even though I am not your CPU, you have welcomed me with open arms and were even willing to listen to my request in regards to CPU Candidate Rom and CPU Candidate Ram." She was relieved at the mostly positive reaction the crowd had and continued on. "While I have enjoyed my time here, I must deliver some news that you may not enjoy now."

There was a murmuring in the crowd and Purple Heart knew that there were people who were at their homes and were watching this.

"As you know, there are other nations in this world." Purple Heart continued to speak, "all of them ruled by their own Voids. I will be traveling to these lands to see the conditions for myself. I do not know what to expect, but the people there, as well as their CPU Candidates, need help." Privately Purple Heart hoped she could at least meet with the CPUs of each of those lands. She didn't know what they were like, but Purple Heart was just hopeful that they would be willing to talk at least. "While I am away, please, continue to put your faith in me. Even if I am far away, so long as I am able to have your faith, I shall be able to fight against the Voids."

The cheers that came from the crowd made her happy.

The fact that she was basically preparing herself to fight against people who looked like her friends did not, however.

(-)

"Nice speech." Chrome said as Purple Heart walked back into the Basilicom. "That should keep your shares up for some time."

Purple Heart nodded as she walked down the hallway with Chrome. "Are the people of the settlement relocated?"

"Yes." Chrome nodded to her. "I went with Linda and Artisan to pick them up. They were skeptical of the fact that White Void was no more, but all of them are happy to be free of her tyranny."

"Good." Purple Heart nodded in relief and turned back into Neptune. "I'd hate for them to dislike being back, ya know? So how about we get this show on the road? I think the plot's been put off long enough, don't you?"

(-)

Several minutes later...

"So this is the ship?" Neptune asked asked as she looked at the ship in question. "It looks like a big boat."

"Yep!" Artisan smiled happily. "It's a remodeled boat that can house a few dozen people. Now it's got propulsion and helicoptor blades so it can fly and land in the water with no problem."

"That's cool. So we can each have our own room, huh?" Neptune asked as she saw Filyn, Gust, Linda and Warechu in front of the boat. "So is this it?" Neptune asked, a little confused by the amount of people. "I thought Compa, Iffy, Rom and Ram would come with too?"

"They're already on board." Linda answered her. "I'm against IF or Compa coming with, but Compa's the only who knows her medical stuff and I don't want IF to miss her daily rubdowns." She blinked at the grin Neptune was giving her. "What?"

"Ooooh! So you rub Iffy down all the time, huh?" Neptune asked, giggling, much to Linda's confusion. "I bet you touch her ALL over!"

"Well... Yeah." Linda gave Chrome a look of confusion while Chrome rolled her eyes. "She needs the lotion everywhere, she has burns all across her body after all."

"Neptune," Chrome spoke up, stopping Neptune from making any further comments, "before you continue, please realize that if IF does not get her daily rub downs that her skin dries up horribly and starts cracking. She once went thirty-six hours in-between rub-downs and her back, rear end, arms, legs and stomach were cracked and splitting open."

"...Oh." Neptune felt like someone had thrown ice cold water all over her. "I'm sorry." She couldn't even imagine how painful that must have been. Just hearing about it made her want to scratch at her own skin.

"It's okay," Chrome said as she walked on, followed by the others with Neptune bringing up the rear.

As she got on board, Neptune looked at Chrome. "Hey, do you mind if I get some sleep on the way there?"

"It's fine." Chrome answered her. "It'll probably take us about five days to get to Leanbox anyway, even by flying."

Neptune nodded and wandered off to the rooms. 'No wonder the nations didn't interact much, if it takes at least five days to get from one nation to the next...' It was easier to ignore problems when they were far away after all.

Chrome sighed as she watched Neptune take off. "Linda, Gust, Warechu, you three need to make sure that this thing stays in the air." At least if something went wrong and they needed to make an emergency landing in the ocean, at least the thing could work like a regular boat.

(-)

After finding an empty room, Neptune walked over to the bed and flopped on it. Sighing, she rolled over and pulled out her cell phone from her inventory and dialed a number.

_"Neptune!"_

Neptune smiled as she heard her sister's voice. "Hey, Nep Jr., sorry about not calling the past three months."

_"Months? Goodness, it's been three days here."_

"Hmm, that's good to know." Neptune muttered to herself. "Hey, Nep Jr., do we have anything for really bad burns?"

_"Are you okay?"_

"Me? I'm fine," Neptune said in such a way that no one would doubt her, "but the Iffy here has a really bad burn on her body and I was wondering if there was anything that could heal her skin."

_"Hmm... I think there MIGHT be. I'd have to go to the hospital and ask the doctors there. How bad is it?"_

"Pretty bad, Nep Jr. So, um... How are you holding up? I know it kind of sucks dumping that much responsibility on you." Neptune genuinely did feel bad about disappearing on Nepgear again, plus after dealing with Rom and Ram for the past three months and helping them through their trauma, she wanted to hug someone and cry as well.

_"I'm fine. Neptune, are you okay?"_

Neptune sighed and shook her head as she sat up. "Nepgear... I... I'm really sorry for being a bad big sister to you."

_"Goodness, are you STILL blaming yourself for what happened when we were stuck in the Ultradimension and how you acted during that time? Neptune, I already told you that I forgave you for that."_

"...No, not that..." Neptune sighed and slumped. "It's really bad over here, Nepgear..."

_"...Neptune, if you need to talk, I'll listen. What's going on?"_

Neptune's eyes teared up. "How did I get so blessed to have such a good little sister like you? Um, isn't there a big science conference coming up?"

_"In a few months here, yeah. What do you..."_

"If I get back before it starts, Nepgear, I'd love to go with you to it." Neptune knew she would be bored out of her mind.

She knew that.

But she really missed her little sister and wanted to do things with her.

_"Aww, okay, thanks Nep..."_

There was a beeping sound and Neptune sighed, knowing the call was dropped. "I guess the difference in time between our dimensions is too much, huh?" Part of her wished that every dimension was on the same time, but that was fine. At least she could have a big adventure and be back before too long. 'Still, three days huh? I better hope it doesn't turn into three weeks, the last time that happened, the country almost fell apart.'

Then again, Rei had been trying to disrupt things and cause chaos during that time too.

Neptune sighed as she sat on her bed, wondering what would happen next.

(-)

At the helm of the ship...

"So..." Linda looked at Chrome. "There's no real information about Leanbox at all." Chrome nodded and Linda turned back to look at the controls of the airship as it moved through the air. "At least this thing is an automatic."

"Yes, way better than the old days where you needed a giant wooden wheel to turn if you wanted to steer a ship." Chrome smirked at Linda. "So many splinters."

"I bet." Linda muttered as she heard the doors to the captain's cabin open up and Gust walked in. "Hey, shorty, need something?"

"Gust doesn't like being reminded that Gust is short." The blue-haired bunny girl grumbled as she looked at Linda in annoyance. "But yes, Gust needs step-stool so Gust can get in and out of bed without falling flat on face."

"Ah, right." Linda muttered and walked out of the room. "I'll show you where it is."

After they left, Chrome walked over to the window and looked out into the ocean below.

But she wasn't looking in the direction they were heading, but rather on the right side of the ship. 'I wonder what Eden's like now.' She thought to herself and wondered if that CPU that had hurt Filyn was still alive or not.

"I wonder..." Chrome whispered softly. "If we end up in Eden... Will that still be there?"

She hoped that was the case. But she didn't have any expectations of that still being in Eden if Eden still existed. "After all, loser CPUs like me don't deserve anything."

(-)

Back in Neptune's room...

Neptune had been trying to get some sleep as she lay on the bed, trying not to think about how things were going when she heard the sound of the door to her room opening up and she saw Rom and Ram poke their heads in. "Hey, you two!" Neptune smiled as she sat up. "What's up?"

"Big sis Neptune..." Ram began nervously. "Can we sleep in here with you?"

"Well, the bed isn't too big, but sure." Neptune smiled as they ran over and sat on the bed with her.

"Um..." Rom began and fidgeted slightly. "You look a little sad."

Neptune sighed and leaned back against the wall. "I'm just thinking about how I'm a bad big sister to Nepgear."

"But you're not a bad big sister." Ram protested with Rom agreeing with her. "You're an awesome big sister!"

Neptune gave her a small smile. "Yeah... But not to her. I'm always disappearing on poor Nep Jr. I'm kind of surprised Histy hasn't just made her into the CPU yet and cut me out completely already."

"Huh?" Ram was confused as she crawled over and leaned against Neptune's right side while Rom did the same on her left side. "What do you mean?"

"Well, it's a little different back home." Neptune began. "Back in Gamindustri while CPUs are born from people's faith and Candidates are as well, if something happens to the CPUs, the Candidates can become the CPU for good." She sighed softly.

"Big sis?" Ram wondered why she looked so... Somber. It was so different.

"Sorry, just thinking of stuff." Neptune smiled at them. "I miss my little sister, you know? She's a bit clumsy with some stuff, but she's a really good girl. You'd like her."

Rom wondered if they'd get to meet Neptune's little sister. 'Even if we can meet her, we have to be the CPUs of this world and Big Sis Neptune has to be a CPU in her world.'

It wasn't fair. Even though she finally had a big sister that was super nice and loving, she couldn't stay forever.

'I... I want big sis to stay here, with me.' Rom tried not to start crying all of a sudden, she knew Neptune would be worried if she did.

But at the same time, she couldn't help but want to keep the person who made her feel safe, warm and loved around.

'It's just not fair.' Rom couldn't fight back the tears and buried her face into Neptune's chest, sobbing softly while both Ram and Neptune were concerned.

She didn't want to lose her big sister, why did life have to be so unfair?

To be continued...

* * *

What? You thought we'd be in Leanbox in this chapter? Nope!


	16. Leanbox

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

By the way, if you're having some trouble figuring out what the airship Neptune and the others are in looks like, just go look up a sprite of the airships from Final Fantasy IV.

* * *

Chapter 13

"Well, well..." Vert, dressed in a green bathrobe that did nothing to hide her large breasts and was so short that the bottom half of her large butt was on display, and fuzzy slippers, smirked as she walked into her dungeon. There were several cells in the room, but there was only one that had the person she was interested in held within.

The person in question was a young child, and due to the fact that their clothing was in tatters, it was easy to see the abuse on their body and the fact that the person was a girl, slowly raised her head up and looked at Vert with a look of total despondence on her face. "W...why?" She asked as she hung from the ceiling with her arms locked in chains while her feet were in chains that were bolted to the floor so that she couldn't move. Her blonde hair was dirty and greasy from never being cleaned and her eyes had unshed tears as her face had tear-streaks all over them.

Vert just shook her head. "Quite frankly, I grow so sick and tired of this..." She sneered at the girl before smirking as an idea came to her. "So, I'll tell you what... Unlike my OTHER younger sisters, I'll kill you early."

The girl flinched and looked down. "Sorry..." She whimpered, wondering why she had to suffer like this.

"Aww, don't worry..." Vert slid up to the girl and ran a hand over the girl's young body, drawing a shiver from the bound girl. "It's just your rotten luck to be born as MY little sister." She gave the bound girl's butt a tight squeeze. "But don't worry, at least you'll die with your heart intact, unlike my last six younger sisters." Vert said and gave the bound girl a firm pat on the butt. "If you were a little older, I might have kept you as a sex pet or something." She laughed and walked off. As she got to the cage door, she turned to look at the girl who was hanging there. "But don't worry, I have your execution scheduled for the end of the week."

The girl's blue eyes watered up and she hung her head as Vert walked off. "Why... Big sis... Why..?" She cried to herself. She didn't want to die. She wanted to live, why did she have to die?

"What did I do wrong?" The little girl asked.

Sadly there was no answer for her.

(-)

A few days later...

"What do you mean we can't just land at the castle?" Chrome asked Linda, who shook her head.

"Not enough room." Linda said to her. "I mean, I SUPPOSE Nep could transform into Purple Heart and fly in there, but..."

"Not a good idea." Chrome shook her head. "Fine, so where do we land?" She looked outside and had a small frown on her face. "The nation is a giant stone maze?" And from what she could see there were things that looked... Weird. "So how do we get there?"

Linda shrugged and flew towards the edges of the nation. "I think I saw an entrance as we were flying up to this place."

"Hey!" Neptune said as she, Rom and Ram walked into the cockpit. "So that's Leanbox?" She asked while looking out the window. "Is that a castle?" Neptune boggled as she looked at the stone building in the center of the nation. "Leave it to Vert to want a big stone castle."

"Vert?" Chrome asked her. "Oh, let me guess, in your world, Vert's the CPU of your Leanbox?" Neptune nodded at her. "Well, does she have an ego or something?"

"Yep." Neptune nodded. "She's always trying to show everyone else up, I guess having a big, stone castle that looks like something out of an old-school fantasy RPG fits her."

Chrome smirked, glad she wasn't the only one who thought the castle looked like that. "So there's a maze to even get to the castle, but I can't figure out how we're getting into the nation."

"Oh, don't worry about that." Neptune grinned at her. "Knowing Vert, she has a way in and out and there's a whole bunch of traps and stuff in the way. But if I were here, I'd probably put a docking station for boats on the East and South sides of the country."

"Can we land on one of those docking places?" Rom asked as she and Ram looked out the window to look at Leanbox. "That place is pretty neat."

"Don't worry, this thing used to be a boat." Linda said to them. "Landing in the water is easy to do."

"So the question is, who's going with us?" Chrome asked. "Neptune already says she's going, I plan on going with her. We need some people to watch the ship."

"I'll stay here." Linda said. "Gust, Warechu, IF and Compa will as well. No offense kids," she looked at Rom and Ram, "but you can do what you want." Sure, she didn't MIND them as she had gotten to know them, but she was still wary around them. Mostly because they were born from Fearicite and even with Lowee's Fearicite crystal shattering, there was no telling if they'd transform into Voids or not, "And Filyn does what she wants anyway."

"It's fine, yo." Neptune spoke up with her arms crossed behind her head. "You can stay if you promise to keep putting faith in me."

Linda snorted, but smirked at her. "That all? You earned that when you beat the shit out of White Void." She sobered up. "Just be careful, okay? You're the only one who can fight those Voids right now."

"I'm almost disappointed." Chrome drawled but smirked at Linda as she flushed. "You're not wrong. If Neptune hadn't knocked away that axe, I never would have been able to do what I did to her."

"Um..." Ram looked at Linda nervously. "Do you still hate us?"

"Hate's a strong word." Linda admitted and rubbed the back of her head. "How to..."

"It's okay." Rom interrupted and snorted at Linda. "I get it. Even if the Fearicite's gone, I don't want to transform if I can help it, even if I get the ability to do so."

Linda nodded, grateful that the CPU Candidate brought it up. "Yeah. I don't know if you can transform without a Fearicite Crystal or not, but if you do and you turn into a Void..."

Ram trembled, her eyes watering up. "I don't want to be a monster." She jumped as she felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning, she saw Neptune smiling at her softly.

"Don't worry," Neptune winked at Ram, "you won't turn into a Void even if you transform. You need to feel all sorts of bad emotions first after all."

"What about you?" Rom asked as she looked at Neptune. "The Fearicite Crystal tried to make you into a Void."

Neptune turned to Rom and shook her head. "Nah." She walked to the door, winking at Rom. "This Nep's been brainwashed before and that Fearicite Crystal doesn't compare to what Kurome did to me." Legitimately trying to kill her sister had been the worst thing that Neptune ever did to Nepgear.

And no matter how much Nepgear told her that she forgave Neptune over it, Neptune could never forgive herself.

She knew that Noire, Vert and Blanc all felt the same way. Even if none of them ever brought it up, there was just a look that the four of them had between each other that told them that none of them had truly gotten over what Kurome did to them.

Not that any of them blamed Uzume, it wasn't her fault after all.

(-)

It was nearly fifteen minutes later when Neptune, Chrome, Filyn, Rom and Ram were walking off the ship and into Leanbox.

Chrome looked up at the walls and mentally sighed. They had to be at least fifteen meters tall or higher. "And me without climbing gear." She said and ran her hand over the wall, noting that it wasn't super smooth, but rather rough and had places that stuck out as perfect hand and foot holds for climbing up.

"Big sis Neptune..." Ram spoke up. "Can you fly us straight there?"

"Yeah!" Rom's eyes lit up in happiness. "I don't wanna get lost in this maze." It looked really complicated and there was no mini-map to tell them anything.

"Well, if I know Vert like I think I do... Even if she's from an alternate world..." Neptune reached down and picked up a rock. "HIYAH!" She yelled and threw the rock as hard as she could. Everyone watched the rock fly up and just as it got above the stone walls, it seemingly exploded and the air started to ripple with green energy or something.

"Well, that plan's out." Chrome muttered. "Anyone else have a plan?"

"I got an idea!" Filyn suddenly spoke up. "We go left!"

"Through the first or the second corridor?" Chrome pointed out and sighed as Filyn walked along the first one. "Well, it's not like I have any better ideas."

The others followed along and as they got to the end, they turned a corner...

And found themselves in an entirely different area.

(-)

"...Vert has random teleporters." Neptune grumbled as she realized that one, she was in a different area and two...

She was alone. "HELLO?!"

When there was no response, she sighed and looked around. "Well..." There was a wall to her back and the walls around her broke off into a T-section. "Left, right or center?" Shrugging, she spread her arms to the side and ran straight forward and hoped that the others were okay.

(-)

At another location...

Chrome frowned as she looked around. "Filyn? Neptune? Rom? Ram?" She called out as she looked around in the room she somehow ended up in. "Well, at least there's an open door. I wonder why I was..." She trailed off as she saw large, mutant spiders suddenly start swarming in. "Oh lovely." Flexing her fingers, several threads of thin metal gleamed in the light as they seemingly extended from her fingertips. "I might be a former CPU, but I can still fight."

At least now she knew why the door was open. After all, if it was anyone but her or Neptune, they would likely be dead real quick.

Jumping to the corner, Chrome jumped up so that her feet were on the wall and then used that to push off while swinging her arms around and flexing her fingers so that the wires went all around the spiders that were flooding into the room before she gave the wires a pull and the spiders turned into a fine paste.

Sadly, the wave of spiders didn't end and Chrome just sighed softly. "Well, guess I can't complain too much."

She just hoped that she killed these things off fast enough to find her sister and the others.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Rom stared at what looked like a glass wall in front of her. She turned to the side and saw a glass wall there as well. On all four sides, glass walls. Above her, a glass ceiling and below her was a stone floor, which she was thankful for. "So..." She pulled out her magic staff and tested the wall by blasting the one farthest away from her.

When the magic blast seemingly disappeared before reappearing to her side and zapping her in her butt, she jumped and let out a shriek while rubbing her rear end. "Why is it always my butt!?" Rom yelled in frustration. Still, at least she wasn't going to blast the walls. That was dangerous.

There was a clanging sound and Rom's pupils shrank as she saw a large metal ball suddenly appear in the center of the room. "What the heck is that there for?"

When the room suddenly tilted towards her slowly and the ball started to roll her way, Rom knew. "YEEK!" Rom jumped out of the way and watched as the metal ball disappeared through the wall behind her, only for the metal ball to come out of another side, but thankfully with the way that the room was tilted it wouldn't move towards her.

"I hope it..." Rom fell onto her butt as the room shifted again and she could only stare in horror as the ball started to aim at her. Getting to her hands and knees, she quickly crawled away while pushing herself to her feet and running as the ball just barely missed her and came through another section of the wall. "THIS SUCKS!" Rom cried out and focused on her magic and fired a blast at the metal ball as the room tilted back in her direction again. "I'll break this bad ball!"

When the blast hit the ball and bounced off of it, Rom let out a yelp of fright as the energy zig-zagged all over the room, going through the walls, the ceiling and hitting the ball again, which, while not doing any damage to the ball, was slowing it down.

Rom didn't move, she was worried her own blast would hit her in the face or butt, but she knew that if she didn't move that the big ball in front of her would run her over and that would be really bad. "Big sis Neptune! HELP!" Rom called out, wondering what she could...

There was a crashing sound and Rom turned her head to the left and saw a panel of the wall that was destroyed and leading to a hallway. Without even bothering to question it Rom ran for it as fast as her short legs would carry her before jumping as the ball crashed into the open hole, where it stopped.

Rom panted with one hand on the wall. "That was scary." She didn't want to die being squished under a giant marble after all.

She hoped that Ram, Neptune and the others were doing better than she was.

(-)

Elsewhere...

Ram looked around in confusion. "Where am I?" One second she was with Rom and the others and the next second she was all alone in some corridor, surrounded by some red, goopy substance that was making her a bit nervous.

When the goopy substance started to shrink and condense, Ram was almost relieved, at least she didn't have to see if it was dangerous to touch.

When she was surrounded on both sides of the corridor by really fat red dogoos, Ram's pupils shrank and she trembled. "Ah! This isn't fair!" She pulled out her magic staff and blasted one, only to have its body ripple without much damage dealt to it. "Eeek!" Ram trembled as they moved towards her slowly. "I don't want to die. Please..."

"Dogoo..." The two blubbered out and got close to her as Ram fell to her butt and teared up while shivering and shaking as the dogoos kept moving towards her.

"Please! Don't! I don't, EEK!" Suddenly a tendril of slime shot out from one of the dogoos and wrapped itself around Ram's leg before pulling her into the creature's slimy body.

"NO!" Ram struggled and tried to get free as she sank into the body of slime. "Let me go!" She focused her magic as best she could into her staff and smacked the slimy creature, only to find that her staff getting stuck in the slime. As she sank into the slime, helpless to move as her arms became unable to move, Ram started to cry. It was all she could do. "Rom! Big Sis Neptune! I'm so sorry! I'm glub glub!"

Ram struggled to move, she struggled to do anything, it was all she could do. As her lungs started to burn from the lack of air, she screwed her eyes shut. 'I'm sorry everyone... Forgive me.'

That was the last thing she thought of as she passed out from lack of oxygen.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Rom looked at the pit and gulped in fear. "I can't see the bottom." There was a narrow path in front of her that she could walk across at least. Taking a deep breath, she slowly let it out. "I'll be brave, big sis Neptune, you'll be proud of me." Rom started to walk across the narrow path and shivered as she realized that it was a lot more narrow than she thought it was. "Maybe..." She quickly got on her hands and knees and crawled across the platform and whimpered as she heard a rock crumble down into the pit below. "I don't want to fall. I don't want to fall." She muttered as she continued to crawl until she got to a circular pillar part way into the pit. "Made it!" She smiled and stood up. "Okay, I can do this! I can get back to the others!"

Suddenly the pillar started to shake and Rom's eyes widened. "EEK!" She yelled and ran forward as fast as her short legs could carry her. "WAAAH! I DON'T WANNA DIE!" She cried as the bridge swayed and started to crumble. "NO! NO!" Rom cried out as she got half way across and found the bridge was giving out on her completely. "JUMP!" She yelled and jumped as hard as she could towards the other side.

Sadly, it was not to be as her jump ended up being short and she fell into the deep pit below.

"WAAAAAH!" Rom cried as she saw the light of the hallway shrink and eventually disappear while she fell. "I DON'T WANNA DIE!" She screamed in fear as tears fell from her eyes as she was consumed by darkness.

To be continued...

* * *

*Insert Dick Dastardly mustache twirling pose here* Meehahahahahahahahaha!

A lot happened in this chapter, didn't it? Lots of stuff to review.

And just so you all know, I really want to post chapters as soon as I have them written too. IT'S SO HARD TO HOLD BACK! T_T


	17. Maze Traps

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Okay, so, warning to everyone right now. This chapter is ESPECIALLY lewd and not completely in a good way.

* * *

Chapter 14

In her castle, Vert, who was laying on her bed stark naked, turned her head as one of her male guards entered her room. "Yes?" She licked her lips as she looked over him. While his face was covered by a mask, the armor he had on his shoulders, arms and legs did NOTHING to hide how muscular he was, as she didn't allow her guards to wear shirts and the only thing he was wearing on his torso was basically underwear that Vert was certain was called a "banana hammock", but she wasn't sure. "What is it?"

"Forgive me, Lady Vert," the guard knelt and bowed to her. "There seems to be some cute girls that got into the maze and ended up losing to some of your traps."

"Hmm... Cute girls, huh?" Vert tapped her chin as a small blush came to her face and she grinned. She loved cute girls, hunky boys, and of course, anyone with a very sexy body. "Are they the type I would like?"

"I apologize, but they're both a little too young for your tastes."

Vert sighed as she heard that. "Oh... Damn." She thought that while little children were cute, but it wasn't right of her to get them before they entered puberty. The instant that they hit puberty though?

Her pet tentacle monsters were less clingy than she could be.

'Hmm, I wonder if anyone will run into my little pet in the maze. It's been so long since it's been fed.' Vert thought to herself and grinned at the thought of someone having tentacles sliding into their mouths, rear ends and other private parts. The mere thought of some of them being forced to breed with her tentacle monsters was almost enough to make her orgasm on the spot.

Sighing, she ran a hand over her breasts and tried to console herself by bouncing, fondling and jiggling her breasts. "Anything else?" It wasn't that Vert cared if children were too young for her, but when they were so young they couldn't appreciate the sensations and she had turned some of her previous lovers who had been children into comas, where they eventually died, because they couldn't handle the sensations. And for her, with her high sex drive, that just wasn't acceptable.

Sure, if they couldn't please her, she dealt with them harshly, but that was only fair. She let them live, gave them a good life and all she asked from her subjects, both male and female, was to satisfy her incredible sex drive. Sure, sometimes she literally fucked the males to death or drove women insane from the amount of orgasms that they went through, but that was a small price to pay she thought.

"Um, no, we've moved your CPU Candidate to the execution square and chained her up as you asked for us to do." The guard answered her. "I question, what method of execution do you wish? We have your lance, medical equipment ready to go so you can peel her skin off before removing her ribs and then her organs one after the other, or we could..." He was stopped as Vert shook her head. "Lady Vert?"

"Hmm... I always wanted to know what death by asphyxiation was like." Vert's grin became murderous. "Yes, I think I'll choke her to death in front of everyone. But get me some knives ready in case she doesn't die right away." The guard nodded and Vert smiled at him as she moved her body and leaned back.

"Um, the execution today... It's in a few hours, correct?" The guard asked, getting a nod from Vert. "Um... Lady Vert, forgive me for being so bold, but shouldn't you wait? Did you not once..."

Vert sighed and stretched her arms above her head. "I do understand your concern, but I really don't like trying to mold those little brats into CPUs. It's so... Tedious. Plus what if they win?" Her eyes started to tear up. "To rob Gamworld of beauty like mine!" She pinched her nipples and let out a moan. "It would be a crime to humanity if I were to leave this world!" An idea came to her and she looked at the guard and licked her lips. "We have some time." She reached down and spread her privates open. "I would love to have a partner right now. Can you last at least three rounds?"

The man nodded and stripped his "hammock" off, revealing a piece of meat that had Vert licking her lips as he joined her on the bed and got between her legs.

"NNNNGH!" Vert let out a groan as he slipped into her easily and filled her insides. "Yes, I love this sensation."

The room was quickly filled with moans, the smell of sweat and other bodily fluids as the two had sex.

(-)

Chrome panted as she got out of that room and rubbed her forehead to get the sweat off of her skin and out of her eyes. "What the hell was that?" She grumbled as she looked at the shattered crystal that was by the door. "A monster summoning trap?" She had to have killed at least three dozen monster spiders by now. Panting, she leaned against the wall and sat down to catch her breath. "I hope that the others didn't get into something like that." She looked around and shivered, hoping she wouldn't run into anymore giant spiders the rest of the time she was in this maze.

After a couple of minutes, she stood up and looked left and right before biting her lip softly. "Let's see... Well, if Filyn says to go left, I might as well do the same thing."

It wasn't like she had anything better plan at that moment.

(-)

"Hey!" A voice yelled. "Hey!" The same voice yelled. "HEY!" The same voice yelled, this time there was also pain as the person the voice belonged to kicked the person the voice was yelling at in the butt.

"Owwies!" The person who got kicked suddenly sat up and coughed before taking in some deep breaths. "I...I'm alive?"

"Yeah you are, Ram." Ram looked at the voice and she gasped as she saw Filyn smiling at her. "You lost to a trap too, huh?"

"...What did you lose to?" Ram asked Filyn, who helped her stand up and she looked around where she was at. There were stone walls, a stone floor and a stone ceiling with metal bars on one end. "Are we in prison?"

"I guess... I was fell into an open pit and the ceiling came down on me." Filyn grimaced at that. "When I didn't feel any pain, I opened my eye and I was here. Then you appeared in a flash of light."

Ram suddenly hiccuped and hugged Filyn, crying hard. "I thought... I thought... WAAAAAHHH!"

It didn't take long for Filyn to start crying as well. After all, she had been just as scared as Ram was and it was all catching up to her at that moment.

A moment later, they were joined by a third person as a flash of light appeared in the room.

"Rom!" Ram suddenly cheered as she saw her sister appear in the prison with them. "ROM!" She jumped her sister and hugged her tightly.

"Ram?!" Rom started panting in fear and hugged her back. "I'm alive, what happened?" Ram couldn't answer her as they hugged each other and were soon joined by Filyn, who turned it into a three-way hug.

Rom didn't know why she was alive, but quite frankly, she wasn't going to complain about it.

(-)

Elsewhere...

"Okay, so..." Neptune muttered as she looked down several hallways. "Left, right or center..? Hmm.. I know! Right!" It was the only direction she hadn't tried yet.

As she walked down the hallway, her nose crinkled as a peculiar odor reached her nose. "What's that? It smells kind of like a nice flower or something." It reminded her of the time she had gone to visit Noire a few months ago and found the whole place smelling like this.

Noire and Uni had apparently been dealing with some strong bouts of insomnia and had tried some incense to help the relax and get some sleep.

Of course, Neptune had misheard that when they explained why their Basilicom had smelled like that and had thought that Lastation sisters had decided to lewd each other. "Hee hee, boy were they mad about that. I don't know why either, I saw that CG when we were playing 4 Goddesses Online." All it needed was a photo shopped line of drool between their lips and it would have looked like Noire and Uni had been kissing each other in-game.

As she walked through the hallway, she turned to the left and looked around in confusion. "Did someone paint the walls?" They were looking kind of... Pink at that moment. And the smell was really strong and Neptune was feeling uncomfortably warm at that moment. She idly noticed that the ceiling and floors were also pink but didn't pay attention to it.

She stiffened as she felt something on her leg. Looking down, she didn't see anything. "Okay, what the Nep is going on?" Neptune had this feeling that something was wrong, but she didn't know what it was. "EEK!" She yelled as she felt something hit her butt from behind hard enough to knock her down. "What was that?!" She yelled and tried to turn but found that she couldn't move. "Huh?!" Neptune's eyes widened as her hands were suddenly bound by some fleshy tendrils. "No way! Are these tentacles?! Come on! This isn't right! This isn't a porn doujin!" She cried out in dismay as tentacles erupted from the walls and slid into her parka hoodie from both the top and bottom. "NO!" Neptune shuddered as the tentacles going down her front slid under her undershirt. "I'll show you! I'll just MPPPH!" Her eyes widened as a thick tentacle shoved itself into her mouth and down her throat. 'Eww! This is so slimy and gross!' She could feel the tentacles down her shirt rubbing her small chest. 'Stop it! I'm gunna transform and nep you...' Her eyes widened and she let out a muffled scream as she felt her panties getting torn apart by the tentacles that were under the lower part of her hoodie. "MMMPH! NNNNPH!" Tears welled up in her eyes as she felt her bare butt getting felt up by the tentacles. 'NO! Don't go in there! That's not for entering!' She screamed in her mind as she felt the thick tentacle at her anus start to push in. "NNNNPH!"

Neptune wanted to transform, but every time she tried to focus on gathering up her energy, a new sensation, such as the tentacles down her shirt opening up and squeezing on her nipples, or the tentacle that was rubbing her pussy and getting it wet, kept screwing with her mind. "STMMMPH!" She screamed as the tentacle that was pushing on her anus pushed further in. "NNNNPH!"

There was a swishing sound in the air and the tentacles suddenly stopped as they were squeezed by something and then torn to shreds, causing Neptune to fall down to the ground.

"Neptune!" Chrome yelled as she used her razor wire to cut down more tentacles that came after the downed CPU. "Get over here!" She yelled as Neptune got to her feet. "Hurry!"

Neptune didn't even question how Chrome found her, but she ran while stumbling and using her hands to help her get back to her feet as she slipped on some slimy stuff until she got to Chrome and the two ducked into the far corridor and stopped after they got out of the range of the tentacles.

"Are you okay?" Chrome asked and realized that Neptune had a tentacle coming out of her mouth. Grabbing the tentacle in Neptune's mouth, she pulled up and Neptune gagged and coughed as Chrome threw it back towards the mess of tentacles.

"NO!" Neptune screamed and rubbed her backside. "OWW! Not only did this story almost become a hentai story, there was one that almost went in my butt!"

Chrome winced. "My apologies, if I had gotten here sooner."

Neptune shuddered and panted, shivering and trembling.

"Neptune?" Chrome asked, concern on her face. "What's wrong?"

"I was..." Neptune shuddered, tears in her eyes. "Dammit, Vert... What was with this yucky trap?" Her eyes widened and she unzipped her parka, revealing some tentacles under her undershirt. "Oh come on!" She grabbed them and yanked them off, groaning. "They were biting me!"

"Couldn't you transform?" Chrome asked and winced at the look she was given. "I guess not." She looked at Neptune more fully and sighed.

"...I don't know why, but right now I want to go back into that pit and let those tentacles do all they want to me." Neptune panted heavily and Chrome put her hand on the CPU. "What?"

"Tentacle monsters have that effect on people." Chrome admitted to her. "You had one of their tentacles on your butt and one in your throat and..." She looked down. "Did it go inside your crotch?" Neptune shook her head. "Good. Okay, the slime makes you really horny for awhile and makes you want to go back to them willingly. It'll fade in a couple of hours."

Neptune shuddered and sat back. "But it... Really burns and I don't... Well..." She blushed heavily. "I do, but..."

Chrome sighed and pulled out a couple of earplugs. "I'll neither listen nor watch." She said and turned away from Neptune.

Neptune blushed and scooted into a hallway off to the side. After making sure that there were no monsters or traps, she sat down and took care of her own needs.

(-)

A little bit later...

Neptune was blushing hard after she wiped down thanks to the towels in her inventory that she had brought with. Getting dressed, she looked at Chrome, who was pulling the ear plugs out of her ears. "Um... Thanks for not... You know... Looking."

Chrome shook her head. "Even before the Fearicite, there were tentacle monsters in Eden. I got caught a couple of times when I was a Candidate. My elder sister saved me both times and I had to deal with the sensations on my own. If you need to talk about it, I'll listen."

"I just..." Neptune shuddered as she zipped up her hoodie. "That was disgusting and now I'm going commando!"

"At least I found you before something really bad happened." Chrome shook her head. "After I became the CPU, there was an adventuring group that got lost and captured by a tentacle monster... By the time I found them..." She looked down and sighed. "They were too far gone, minds destroyed and they were being used as a monster baby factory."

"...I'm sorry." Neptune didn't know what else to say to that.

Chrome shook her head. "Don't worry about it. That was a long time ago. Just so you know, you might have a relapse in a couple of days." Neptune jerked in surprise. "That stuff absorbed into your body. You won't be as bad off as you were, but you'll still be..." Chrome trailed off and Neptune nodded. "Just let me know so I can keep everyone out of your room while you take care of it."

"If we get out of this." Neptune muttered in agreement. "So... Um... Where to next?"

Chrome wasn't sure herself. "If I knew, we'd already be out. I haven't been down this hallway, so..."

"Yeah." Neptune nodded and walked with Chrome, hoping there were no more tentacles anywhere.

To be continued...

* * *

Poor Nep. What you saw was actually toned down.

And Vert, no matter the incarnation, at her core, is a gamer. ...That is all.


	18. Prison

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 15

"I'm BORED!"

Chrome tried to ignore it, she really did. But Neptune really could be annoying. The fact that they were able to avoid traps and monsters while moving through the maze wasn't easy, but so far they had managed it. "Why are you yelling like that? It's been an hour since we met up."

Neptune gave her a flat stare. "Well, if you want me to stop yelling that, why don't you talk about yourself or Filyn or something that I don't know. What about this world?"

Chrome sighed and shook her head. "What do you want to know?" She was a bit surprised by Neptune's rather serious look.

"...Do you know a Histy?" Neptune asked, causing Chrome to frown in confusion. "Sorry, her name's Histoire, but I call her Histy because I kept screwing it up when I first met her."

"...Histoire, huh?" Chrome thought about it. "...I think there was a fairy by that name that disappeared from the world ages ago."

"Disappeared?" Neptune was confused. "When?"

Chrome shook her head. "Sometime before the Fearicite came into being. From what I know of her, she's supposedly really powerful, but that's all I know."

"Hmm..." Neptune tapped her chin. There was something about that that was bothering her, but she couldn't put it together. "Sounds about right. I mean, my Histy can open dimensional portals pretty easily and she even helped sealed away Uzume into a console. I think Plutie's Histy could do some stuff too, but she was bite sized, so she didn't have the same power." Then again, putting up with her and Plutia for twenty years without exploding or killing the two of them had to be a super power in and of itself.

"...Plutie?" Chrome asked, confusion in her voice before she shook her head. "I don't want to know. Why do you bring up Histoire?"

"Oh!" Neptune's eyes lit up happily. "Because she asked me to go to the other nations and save the CPU Candidates."

"...If she's still alive..." Chrome muttered softly, the implications hitting her like a ton of bricks. "Then she would know why the Fearicite came into the world." That was something that Chrome could never figure out, why such a dangerous substance would come into the world and why CPUs would be born from it.

Neptune shrugged, it sounded about right. "Yeah, but it'll probably take her like three days to get you the information you want." Though considering that Chrome had been suffering for over sixty years, a few more days didn't seem to be so bad.

"Let's go." Chrome said as they walked down the hallway next to each other.

When the floor panel under them shifted, the two looked at each other with both dread and resignation as they disappeared.

(-)

"Ooof!" Neptune groaned as she landed on something hard and pointy. "What the Nep?" She wasn't sure what it was, but it reminded her of a wooden horsebird for some reason. 'Though this pointy part I'm sitting on reminds me of a doggy house.' She thought to herself. For some reason the thing felt really familiar, like she had seen it before.

Before she could move, manacles slapped down on her wrists and ankles, pinning her limbs to the legs of the table. "Okay, what's this..." Neptune let out a cry of pain as the manacles around her ankles pulled down and drove her crotch into the part that was pointing up. "Oww! Oh yeah! Didn't Sadie put Tekken on one of these?"

"I wouldn't know!" Chrome, who was a few feet away from her, grunted as she sat straight up on her own wooden horsebird, when it started to rock back and forth Chrome let out a cry of pain and discomfort, which was followed by Neptune joining her as hers started to rock back and forth.

"Nepu!" Neptune cried out and winced as the wooden part dug into her soft and tender flesh. "Yeesh! This hurts! Imma gunna transform and, OWW!" Neptune yelped as she felt something slap her rear end. Turning her head, she gawked as a paddle was lowered from the ceiling and hit her butt again. "Dang it! I'd expect this from Sadie! Not Vert!" She groaned and whimpered as she felt a familiar warmth start to spread through her. "Dang it! I'm not like Tekken or Uni!" She couldn't deny that she was getting aroused, but unlike the two masochists that she knew, she wasn't into pain like they were.

Chrome was thankful that she had landed sitting up like she did, even though it hurt like hell, because it meant that her hands were free. "Hold on, I'll just..." Chrome trailed off as a bunch of laser turrets seemingly popped out of the wall. "...You've got to be kidding me."

_"Trying to break out of the riding horse before ten minutes are up means you lose."_ A voice, that Neptune instantly recognized as Vert's, was heard speaking.

"Lose?" Neptune asked and watched in horror as Chrome was blasted by a blue laser and disappeared. "GRR!" She growled as her ride started to buck some more. "That's it! No more soft-core hentai here! Thirty-two Bit Mega Blade!" Several blades came rushing out and shattered the wooden horsebirds, the laser turrets and many other things. "Finally! Now I can get the Nep out of..."

She wasn't able to finish her sentence as she was blasted by a blue beam and disappeared.

(-)

"CHROMEY!" Filyn ran towards Chrome, her red twin tails bobbing as she ran and hugged her elder sister. "I was so worried about you!"

"Filyn!" Chrome sighed in relief and hugged Filyn. "Rom... Ram." She nodded at them. "I'm glad you're okay."

A moment later Neptune appeared in the room.

"BIG SIS NEPTUNE!" Both Rom and Ram cheered as they ran forward and hugged Neptune tightly.

"Nepu?!" Neptune hugged them back and smiled. "I'm glad you're both okay." Plus the worst was over.

At least she hoped so.

(-)

In the royal bedroom...

"Lady Vert..." Another male guard said as he entered into the CPU's room and knelt down.

"What?" Vert groaned as she bounced on the other guard. "Is it?" She asked while looking over her shoulder while the male guard she was riding was squeezing and fondling her large chest.

"There are five ladies who have ended up in the dungeon."

"Five?" Vert asked, moaning as she felt her partner orgasm inside of her. "Mmmm... I think I'm good for now." She smiled at the guard, who was panting and rubbed his chest. "Five rounds and you're still hard for a sixth?" She chuckled and slid off of him with a slick and wet sound. "Good boy, I've trained you well."

"Thank you, Lady Vert." The guard on the bed panted as body fluids dripped out of Vert's crotch.

Grabbing a green mini robe that did nothing to hide her generous chest or the bottom half of her ass and even let people get a glimpse of her bare crotch, Vert followed the new guard out of the room. "So, we have five, huh? Are the security cameras set up?" The other guard nodded. "Very well..." She said as the two walked down the hallway and into the security room. "Let's see what we have here."

The people manning the stations quickly moved so that the CPU could get a look. When she bent over to look and her robe rolled up and over the curve of her ass, allowing everyone to get a full view of her bare rear end and privates, well, none of them refused the chance to look.

After all, not looking at the CPU when she offered a glorious view of her generous assets was a quick way to be publicly fucked to death.

They had seen it before, it wasn't a pretty way to die.

Even if it was very pleasant.

Vert ignored the men as she flexed her rear and swayed side to side to entice the men. She knew that none of them would dare try to jump her without her permission, but the fact that she could feel their arousal was making her even wetter than before. 'Enough of that, let's see what we have here...' She saw a cute little girl with short brown hair and even though her shirt was doing a decent job of hiding them, a rather nice pair of breasts on her body and semi-baggy shorts on her legs. "She hit puberty early, huh? Hmm... I think I'll wait a few years for her. I want to see what she'll look like when she's fully grown." Vert chuckled and imagined the cute little girl fully grown, tied up and mewling in delight as Vert taught her all sorts of filthy, kinky and delightful things.

The next girl she saw looked very similar to the first girl, but with long hair and without the breasts. Her outfit was adorable with a t-shirt with a cute design on the front, stretchy long pants and a skirt over her waist. "Hmm... Sisters perhaps? Twins? They look to be about the same age." Vert found the girl to be cute, but there was something about her timid look that was a bit of a turn-off. "Maybe in a few years." If nothing else, she was cute enough that Vert knew she'd have no problem turning her into a cute little sex pet for the more... Ugly and unsavory men in her nation.

The next girl she saw was one that had red hair and twin pigtails dressed in a skirt with long boots and t-shirt. "How adorable, she sounds so... Oh..." She sighed and saw the eye-patch. "Damaged goods. Hmm, if she grows to be good looking enough I could have her made into breeding stock."

The fourth one she saw was an older woman with long, silvery-white hair, adventuring pants and a similar shirt, a gorgeous face and a figure that made Vert lick her lips. "Now that's a mature lover." She'd have to probably tie the woman down, she looked like she was one of those stern women that was getting close to the end of their sexual shelf life before their looks started to fade and age caught up with them. "Tis such a shame that she might have just a year or two before her body starts to age badly." True, some women did age more gracefully than others, but most, sadly, hit a wall and stopped being too attractive to anyone.

"Hmm?" Vert's eyes widened and she stared at the final person. "She... She's so CUTE!" Vert squealed as she looked at the girl with spiky purple hair, purple eyes, who was wearing a white hoodie, had striped stockings that went up her legs and looked to be the proper age of puberty. "I've decided!" Vert stood up and her breasts bounced so much that they flopped out of her robe while she spun around. "That one with the purple hair! I want her as mine!"

"Um..." One of the guards spoke up. "Isn't the execution in a few minutes?"

Vert blinked a few times and pouted. "Crap! I forgot! I was so excited by the cutie! Oh! I know!" She pointed at two of the guards. "You two! Go let that group out and lead them to the execution. After I deal with that little monster in waiting, I'll invite the cutie to my bedroom and make her mine." She was drooling openly while her face went flush and she started to pant heavily. "Mmmm!" Vert rubbed her thighs together as she felt her pussy drooling. "NNNNGH! I can't wait! The things I'll do to her!" She turned and bounced off, giggling happily.

The men looked at each other and sighed heavily. They really felt sorry for the purple haired girl.

After all, Green Void was into every fetish imaginable.

To be continued...

* * *

Jeez Vert, calm your tits a little bit.


	19. Green Sister

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 16

Chrome was the first to notice when doors to the cell area opened up and two guards walked in. When she saw what they were wearing, she ended up blushing softly. 'Okay, it's been years since I thought about anyone in that way, but those two are pretty hot.'

"Nep woah!" Neptune gawked at the two men. While they had leather armor on their arms and legs and had a mask on their heads, the fact that their abs, chests, and thighs were all bare and the only thing keeping them somewhat decent was the piece of cloth over their privates was rather distracting. "Hang on, buddy! There are kids here! Go put a shirt on or something!"

"Our apologies that you feel uncomfortable," one of the guards said as he walked over to the door and unlocked it, "but Lady Vert is allowing all of you to go free, if you," he pointed at Neptune, "would be willing to meet with her in private after today's big event is over."

"Uh..." Neptune had a confused look on her face. "Why would Vert wanna meet with me?"

The men looked at each other and shook their heads. "You'll find out soon enough. Come, follow us, Lady Vert has a public spectacle for you all to enjoy first."

"So we're just being let go?" Chrome asked with a raised eyebrow as she followed after the guards. It was taking all of her control to not stare at their ass cheeks as they walked. "I'm surprised."

"You ended up in here." One of the guards explained to her. "Lady Vert has no problem with people trying to run free. After all..." That guard turned to look at the group. "If you can get through the maze without getting caught in a trap, getting raped or dying, you deserve your freedom. Though I can't guarantee there are any boats at any of the docks waiting for you."

"Hey!" Neptune spoke up, "how come when we all lost in those traps we ended up in that cell?"

The other guard spoke as the group walked through the corridors of the castle. "Lady Vert has made a game out of it. If you can escape Leanbox to the ocean, you can leave. But if you fail, you end up in prison and then she will think up a suitable punishment for you."

Behind them, Ram leaned in close to Rom and started whispering. "Why do those boys wear so little?" Rom shook her head.

"I don't know..." Rom trailed off and blushed softly. "They're nice to look at though." Ram nodded and blushed as well while she watched the boys walking. For some odd reason she felt the urge to run up and grab the butts in front of them.

"Yuck..." Filyn shook her head. "Why can't they put some pants on at least?" The group turned a right corner and Filyn walked into the corner of the hallway and fell back. "OWW!"

The next thing she knew, Chrome was next to her while the group stopped. "Filyn, you okay?"

"Yeah..." Filyn rubbed her forehead. "Just surprised me is all." She cursed her lack of depth perception and how she sometimes missed things that others could see because of the fact that she only had one eye.

"Be careful," one of the guards said to Filyn, "Lady Vert would hate to see someone as cute as you be any more damaged." The guard suddenly gulped as the air itself seemingly started to chill. "Uh..."

"First of all," Chrome spoke up, her voice absolutely acidic as she looked at the guard, "my sister is not damaged just because she's missing an eye. Understand?" The guards nodded and tried to avoid her anger. "Secondly, if you ever say that again, I'll have your balls before you take three steps. Understand?"

"Yes, ma'am! We're sorry, ma'am!" They said instantly as they tried to ignore the way her eyes gleamed in anger.

"Good." Chrome nodded, glad they understood.

"Woah, Chromey!" Filyn's good eye widened. "Since when were you like this?"

Chrome smirked at her. "Since when wasn't I?" She knew that Compa, IF, Gust and Linda would all be staring at her in shock if they were there. She looked at Neptune and a small smile came to her face. 'Who knew that having someone like her around could inspire such hope?'

Idly, Chrome wondered how the others were doing.

(-)

Back at the ship...

IF, laying on her front on the bed naked, sighed in relief as Linda rubbed her legs down before running her hands up to her butt. "H...Hey! I'm ticklish!"

"Sorry, I always find your butt interesting with the way the colors blend, mix and swirl." Linda admitted before giving IF's rear a gentle swat to let IF know that she was done.

IF sighed and relaxed. "Is that why you always put the cream on the blue parts of my skin first and then the red and yellow parts?" The darker skin always got treated last and IF wondered if this would ever fully heal or if she'd have to deal with skin that couldn't keep moist for the rest of her life. 'Fucking White Void.' She grumbled to herself.

"That and I think it's neat." Linda said, shrugging. "Plus the blue and darker skin swirls around on your butt like water in a drain."

"You just like slapping my butt." IF commented with no heat in her voice.

Linda chuckled but didn't deny it. "Hey... IF..." When IF gave her a questioning look, she continued, "what do you think about this whole world trip?"

IF sighed and looked away. "I don't know. It would be good if that Nep girl can kill the other CPUs off and then disappear from our life forever."

Linda didn't say anything. She wasn't sure if she felt the same way. "I wonder... She says she's from another world. I wonder what it's like."

"What? You want to go on a vacation?" IF asked her.

"No..." Linda shook her head. "...I want to leave." IF jerked in surprise. "Think about it, IF. This Nep girl says she's from another world, we know she's a CPU, but she's so... Different." Linda looked a little troubled and she sighed. "If the rest of her world is like that... I'd like to go there."

"...Oh." IF said and looked away, a troubled expression on her face. "I-if that's what you want, then what can I do about it?"

"...Want to come with me?" Linda asked and watched as IF stiffened in surprise. "If she can take us with... I want you to come with me."

"Linda?" IF looked at her friend in confusion. Linda had a conflicted, nervous look on her face and IF nodded, smiling softly. "If she can take us with her... Sure. I wouldn't mind going with you."

"Thanks." Linda smiled at her.

(-)

Back at the castle...

"We're here." The first guard said as doors opened to an open courtyard. "Just go stand in the crowd and remember miss..." He looked at Neptune, "Um... Nepthyune?"

"Close enough." Neptune deadpanned at him. "It's Neptune though." She didn't mind that people couldn't get her name right, but it was beyond tiring by now. 'Hmm, maybe I should find a way to set up some language classes across Gamindustri when I get back so that everyone can say my name more easily?' It was a thought at least.

"Right, anyway," the man cleared his throat, "Lady Vert would love to see you after the event is over."

Neptune nodded and the group made their way to the front of the crowd. While there was a lot of people there, the place wasn't too crowded as everyone was spread out. 'Considering there are cameras and screens on the walls, I bet there's a lot of people watching this inside the place.' She thought to herself.

Up above everyone on a stage, Vert, wearing her tiny robe that barely covered her nipples and only just barely covered her crotch with shadow and kept the bottom half of her bare ass revealed, smiled at everyone.

"...Considering that's how she dresses normally, I'm almost afraid to think what her HDD form is." Neptune whispered as she pinched her nose to stop herself from getting a nosebleed. 'Damn, if my Verty dressed like that, she might have succeeded in stealing Nep Jr. away.' Heck, if Vert ever walked around Leanbox or even her Basilicom like that, she probably would have stolen away most of the world's shares on that alone. 'I know that Chika would have died from a massive nosebleed.' She thought to herself, thinking about the Leanbox Oracle that had left some time ago.

"Oh?" Chrome looked at Neptune in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Well," Neptune giggled softly, "Verty-poo in my world has an outfit that shows off her under-boobs and I asked her how she keeps it over her nipples and she said that there's tape and pasties or something."

Chrome sweat-dropped but supposed that would work.

"Greetings everyone!" Vert spoke up as she stood next to something covered by a large sheet. "I'm glad that you could all come out here." Her eyes lit up in happiness as she spied Neptune. "And my special guest is here too!" She squealed and jumped off the stage, running and bouncing over to Neptune so much that it was a shock that her breasts didn't pop out of her robe. "Hello, cutie, can I have your name?" She asked, her voice becoming sultry.

"Um... Neptune..." Neptune sweat-dropped heavily. She wasn't expecting this from this Vert. Though she was getting the same feeling of _wrongness_ from Vert that she got from Blanc, Vert seemed... SOMEWHAT more friendly.

"Oh!" Vert suddenly hugged Neptune into her large breasts and reached down and hiked up Neptune's parka to grab her bare butt. "You're so cute and... Ooooh! Going commando? How bold..." Vert purred in delight as she fondled and squeezed her perky and perfect rear end in her hands before whispering to the struggling Neptune, who was pressing on Vert's large tits to get free. "When I'm done with this event, I think I'll show you a really good time."

Neptune stiffened as she felt Vert's fingers brush up against her slit from behind. "Hey! Watch it, lady! I just met you!"

Vert let go and stepped back, chuckling as she turned around and walked away, swaying her hips to draw attention to her ass. "After I'm done, we'll know each other..." She turned her head and purred while licking her lips at Neptune, "really well."

Neptune shivered, for some reason her every instinct was telling her to turn and run for Lowee and not stop until she found a way to rip a hole in time and space and get back to the Hyperdimension.

"Anyway..." Vert jumped back up on the stage with ease, "we're not here for the sex show, that comes after the main event!" She chuckled and pulled out a serrated blade. "As some of you know, recently my seventh younger sister came into this world." Vert sighed heavily. "Rose, Violet, Jade, Ruby, Opal, Bouquet..." She pulled on the sheet, revealing a young girl in tattered clothing being suspended in mid-air by chains on both arms and legs, holding her in the splits formation. "Every single one of them before I allowed to transform into Voids before I ended them..." Vert looked at the girl who was looking at everyone with a despondent look. "But I think I'll just have the execution now and save myself time and trouble."

Rom, Ram and Filyn were all staring in horror as they saw Vert's blade start to glow and crackle. "NO!" The three yelled at the same time.

Chrome glared and squeezed her hands into fists. 'Dammit, if only...'

Neptune, however, didn't hear a single word that Vert had said after she revealed who was under the sheet. "No..." Her face had gone pale and her pupils shrank as she couldn't believe who it was. "It... It... NO!" Neptune screamed as Vert held up the glowing and crackling blade high into the air.

"P-KO!"

To be continued...

* * *

...Uh oh.

Now how many of you were able to figure this out ahead of time?

Also, sheesh, the Verts from Hyper and Ultra would give their left tits to have little sisters and here an evil version of Vert is killing hers off!

And before anyone says anything, yes, Vert wanted to strangle her sister earlier, but she changed her mind. Either that or she just wanted to flay P-Ko for a bit before choking her to death.


	20. Green Void

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

...I REALLY hope that people don't hate me for this chapter.

* * *

Chapter 17

Both Vert and the aforementioned P-Ko suddenly stopped and turned to the sound of the voice as glowing blades came flying out of nowhere while a young woman with dark purple hair in a twin braided style, a black with purple trim body suit came rushing in, raw anger and rage etched on her face. Before either of them could think, the blade had smashed the weapon Vert had in her hand, shattering it, cut through all the chains and manacles holding the little girl and the woman was driving her foot into Vert's stomach, sending her flying across the stage and she grabbed P-Ko before the little girl even hit the stage.

It happened so fast that no one knew what to think.

"P-Ko..." Purple Heart looked at the blonde girl. "Peashy..." Her eyes watered up as she saw how miserable the girl looked.

"Wh...who..?" Peashy asked as she looked at the woman's kind face.

"My name is Purple Heart..." She smiled at Peashy. "But you can call me Neptune."

"N..Nep...Nap...Nappuu..." Peashy tried to sound out the name. "Um... Neptuna?"

Purple Heart's tears started to flow from her eyes and she hugged Peashy tightly. "Yes, that's right. Your Neptuna is here."

"Oww..." Vert groaned as she sat up and clutched at her stomach. "I'm not against rough play, normally I'm the one dealing out the pain." Vert got up even as her robe undid itself and flopped open and slid off of her, leaving her standing in the nude. "Mmm? You look quite..." She licked her lips. "Delicious. Are you related to that cutie with the short purple hair perhaps?"

Purple Heart turned and gave Vert a look that had such malice that Vert was forced to pause. "How... How DARE you try to do that to P-Ko?!" She growled and put Peashy down while turning to face Vert, her body trembling. "I thought I was pissed at White Void for what she did to Rom and Ram, but this..." Her body was trembling in pure rage. "I will never forgive you for hurting my P-Ko!"

Vert blinked a few times and looked at Peashy and then at Purple Heart and shrugged. "Oh, why didn't you say you wanted her? I would have gladly let you take her."

"Huh?" Purple Heart blinked several times, her anger dissipating. "...Wait, what? What kind of trick is this?"

The naked blonde sighed and tapped her chin. "See, I don't want her. I've had six little sisters and every time they transformed we had to fight to the death." Her eyes teared up. "What if they had won? Gamworld would be denied my beauty, breasts and awesome sex!"

Purple Heart felt her cheeks flushing as she heard that. "H...Hey! There's kids here!" Her mind started racing, however, 'this wasn't right, since when do evil, icky bad people who try to kill their sisters act like this?!' She mentally railed.

Vert shrugged, her large breasts bouncing rapidly from doing so. "They have to learn about it sometime. Why not from the CPU? But, I digress..." Vert sighed, shaking her head. "If I had known that someone wanted that little monster in waiting, I would have let them take her."

"I... Huh?" Purple Heart was finding it hard to keep up with this Vert's logic. "What?"

Vert smiled at Purple Heart. "In fact! I'll let you take her! Right now! If you want to take her and leave Leanbox, I'll disable all the traps so you can just go straight on out without worrying about the monsters!" She clapped and bounced around, making her large, naked breasts jiggle in very distracting ways.

'...Oh, so THIS is why Blanc gets so pissed off about her tits.' Purple Heart thought to herself. While she had laughed about it privately whenever Blanc got mad, she was beginning to understand her friend a little bit better. After all, Vert's boobs were so distracting it was hard to focus on much of anything. "Well, that is..."

"BUT!" Vert held a finger out and waggled it at Purple Heart. "Since you attacked me in such a MEAN way, you need to make it up to me."

"...Huh?"

Vert licked her lips. "Just join me in bed for a week. Allow me to grace you with the honor of being my lover. I'll show you so much..." She started to make her way over to Purple Heart, her hips and breasts swayed in such a way that Purple Heart found her throat drying up as she took a nervous step backwards. "How about it? One week of being my lover..." She was only a few inches from Purple Heart, who didn't even realize that Vert had gotten so close until their breasts were touching. "And you can have that brat forever. Not a bad deal."

Purple Heart was sweating slightly. This wasn't something she had been prepared for. Being propositioned didn't happen too often and it was messing with her in ways that she didn't know were possible. 'Plus if she's anywhere near as good as my Vert is...'

"What are you doing?" Chrome's voice cut through Purple Heart's dazed mind as the silver-haired woman walked up to Purple Heart. "You really think you can trust her?"

"That's right, big sis Neptune!" Rom called out as she glared at Vert. "She's a Void! There's a trick in there somewhere! I bet she plans on killing you if you don't live up to her standards."

"What?" Vert gasped and put a hand over her chest while staggering backwards. "I'm hurt! I would do no such thing!" She pouted at the group, who looked at her in confusion. "If she failed to live up to being a good lover, I would merely turn her into breeding stock for either the monsters in the maze or the men of my nation. Whichever I felt like."

"...And now I have to say no to your deal." Purple Heart dead-panned at her as her anger came back in full force. "I am... Quite angry with you."

"Oh pooh!" Vert sighed and shook her head. "Well, if I have to fight..." She gave Purple Heart a sad look. "If only you had taken my deal, you would have been my favorite lover." Her body started to glow before the air crackled and she was engulfed in a black light with red numbers surrounding her.

"Here we go again." Purple Heart muttered and turned to Peashy. "P-Ko, it's very important that you go with Rom there." She turned Peashy to look at Rom. "Rom will keep you safe while I deal with this monster."

"Monster?" Vert's voice spoke up, almost sounding hurt. "I'm offended!"

Purple Heart turned to look at what Vert had turned into and while the hair style, color and eye color were identical to the Green Heart that she knew, the pupils were still upside down and black, as was the sclera around the purple irises of Vert's transformed eyes.

"...Okay, that color scheme is pretty neat." Purple Heart had to admit that the black leggings, boots and armored gauntlets with green trim were pretty neat, as were the black and spiky hair clips in Vert's hair. The leggings that covered Vert's legs left her thighs visible and were connected to what looked like a vest that covered her abdomen and the top... Well, at least she was wearing something. Around Vert's shoulders, thighs and feet floated some armored shields, all of which were black, silver and had green trim along the edges. Connected to her shoulder shields were two robotic-like hands, each with green fingers.

Purple Heart thought it was kind of funny how a Vert who was an actual slut wore more clothing than either Green Heart did when they were in HDD. "Talk about irony." She said softly.

"Let me guess... Green Void?" Chrome asked, noting the hole in Vert's chest above her large breasts.

"That's right." Green Void smirked at them as purple wings formed out of her back and a spear with a purple crystal-like edge formed in her robotic hands.

Purple Heart frowned as she saw how Green Void was holding her spear, especially as she swung it back and the butt of the spear was pointed at them. Granted, it was large, but still. "Um... I think you're holding it the wrong... Way?"

"Wrong way?" Green Void smirked as a jagged and purple crystallized energy blade formed where the butt of the spear was, turning it into a scythe. "I don't think so."

"Well, this might be bad." Chrome said as her razor wires formed around her fingers. "Suggestions?"

"Try not to die." Green Void smirked as she swung her scythe at Purple Heart and Chrome. "If you lose but don't die to me, I'll make your recovery... Fun." She licked her lips while her robotic hands swung her scythe around, leaving her normal hands free while her two opponents dodged out of the way while the stage was torn apart by the attack.

Green Void charged after Purple Heart and swung her scythe at the purple CPU, forcing Purple Heart to block a swing, only to find the blade of the scythe was long enough to nick her neck. It wasn't enough to do serious damage, but it was enough to poke into her skin. "What's the matter?" Green Void purred. "You thought blocking a scythe was easy?"

Purple Heart pushed Green Void away and realized that there were too many people around them. "Up here!" Purple Heart yelled as she took off into the air, followed by Green Void.

Chrome watched them fly off and grimaced. "I'm nothing more than a nuisance right now." Still, there might be other ways she could help. Turning to look at the civilians, who were frozen, in fear, arousal or something else, Chrome couldn't tell, but she knew she had to do something. "Hey! Everyone! Come on!" She clapped her hands, getting their attentions. "Let's get farther back so that those CPUs can fight without hurting any of us."

"Wait, that purple one's a CPU?" A woman in the crowd asked, confused. "But she doesn't have a hole in her chest."

"She's a Heart, not a Void." Chrome answered the woman. "She's here to liberate you from Green Void." She sighed at the confused looks people had. "Just clear enough space in case they come back down."

(-)

Peashy was confused as the short haired girl helped her away from the stage. "...Who are you?" She didn't know what was going on, who the kind lady was that saved her, or who this person was, but at least she wasn't chained up anymore.

Rom smiled at her. "I'm Rom, the CPU Candidate of Lowee. What's your name?"

"P...Peashy." The little blonde girl answered and looked at the other two girls. "Who are you?"

"My name's Filyn," the redhead with an eye-patch spoke up, "and this is Ram."

"Um..." Ram blushed and smiled at Peashy, "I'm the CPU Candidate of Lowee as well." Peashy gave her a confused look and she smiled at her. "Rom and I are twin sisters."

"Oh." Peashy had a confused and sad look on her face. "Who... Nep...tuna.? Why..?"

"Because Big Sis Neptune is awesome." Rom answered, getting a smile and nod from Ram. "She got mad at the monster in Lowee as well."

Peashy just looked at them in confusion. "I... I..."

"Hey..." Filyn smiled at Peashy and stepped up to her while grabbing her hands. "Just believe in Neptune, okay?" Peashy blinked in confusion, "she'll make the bad monster that hurt you go away."

Rom looked at the people around them who were looking at them in confusion. "What?"

"You're the CPU Candidates of Lowee?" One of the onlookers asked in confusion. Rom and Ram nodded and several of the people got scared. "Are you here to..."

"We're helping Big Sis Neptune!" Rom gave the onlooker a glare. "She's fighting that meanie Green Void right now!"

"Uh huh!" Ram stood up. "And she's helping us become good CPUs! Not Voids! She already beat White Void!"

The crowd gasped and looked at each other, having a hard time believing someone could beat a Void and live to tell the tale afterword.

"Hey!" Filyn spoke up, "look at her!" She pointed to the right.

"Um..." Ram giggled nervously and moved Filyn's arm to where Green Void and Purple Heart were fighting, "you were off."

"BAH!" Filyn blushed and tried to ignore her embarrassing screw up. "Anyway! Purple Heart is fighting for all of you! For your CPU Candidate! She's fighting to stop the Void that runs your life!"

"So what?" A woman asked. "What can she do against that monster?"

"I don't know," Filyn answered them, "but I do know that if you believe in her then she'll get stronger!"

"She's right." Chrome said as she walked up to the crowd while others stood loosely around them. Turning her head, she watched the fight as Purple Heart and Green Void clashed across the sky. "Purple Heart is fighting for all of you. If you want your lives under Green Void to end, you have to believe in Purple Heart." She looked at Peashy and gave her a small smile. "You wouldn't have a CPU Candidate if you weren't tired of living under her rule, would you?"

Chrome sighed as the people looked at each other in confusion. 'If they don't put more faith in her... How can I convince them..?"

"Please!" Rom suddenly yelled out and bowed her head. "Please! Help Big Sis Neptune! She's so awesome! Please! Just believe in her!"

The silence from the crowd made her tremble as she realized that none of them were putting out the same kind of warm feeling that the people in Lowee had been able to put out.

'I'm sorry, big sis Neptune... I really am.' Rom looked at the fight going on and her eyes watered up. "I really wanted to help you."

(-)

In the sky Purple Heart's sword lit up with fire as she swung it at Green Void. "Blaze Break!" She knew the CPU was vulnerable after that wide swing she had just taken and would need time to recover. Her eyes widened as Green Void, instead of trying to dodge or block, simply turned and thrust her non-scythe part at Purple Heart like a spear, forcing Purple Heart to parry it, causing the flames to dissipate.

"Oh my..." Green Void smirked as she rubbed her breasts. "Was that surprising?" She asked while stabbing forward a few times at Purple Heart, who parried or dodged each attack before swinging her scythe around again, forcing Purple Heart to fly backwards. "Mmm... It's so hard to focus on fighting when I just want to tie you up and break you in and make you my own personal sex pet."

"Could you not say such perverted things when we fight?" Purple Heart asked, annoyance in her voice. 'If she wasn't Vert I don't know if I'd be as bothered by this.' She tried to imagine Plutia, Blanc or Noire speaking like that and had to fight down a massive blush. 'Okay, she can keep talking like that, it's better than hearing those three speaking like this.' Especially Plutia, nothing good ever happened when Plutia was aroused.

"Oh?" Green Void asked as she jiggled her breasts in her hands and sighed in pleasure. "I suppose I can masturbate without speaking then... But it's not nearly as much fun."

"...Wait, what?" Purple Heart asked and yelped as she had to duck under a scythe swing. "You have got to be kidding me, are those things set up to fight FOR you?!"

"Yes." Green Void smiled as she moved her right hand down her body and under her bikini bottom to start rubbing her crotch directly. "It allows, oooh mmm... It allows me to masturbate while I fight."

Purple Heart twitched. "I owe Blanc an apology when I get home." She had always thought that Blanc over-reacted whenever Vert bounced her boobs in Blanc's face, but seeing Green Void like this... Well, it was easy to see why Blanc got so pissed off about it so easily.

Green Void was panting and cooing in delight as she felt her body starting to tremble. "Just a little... OOOOH!" She cried out and Purple Heart watched in amazement as Green Void's panties and thighs got soaked. "Ahhhh! That felt *SO* good!"

Purple Heart felt her eye twitching and was finding it hard to really focus on the fight. 'Okay, I think I understand how everyone feels around my tiny form now.' She thought to herself. "Don't you think there's a time and place for that?"

Green Void just smiled at her as her body started to glow pink. "Indeed... Which is why I was masturbating in the middle of combat." She swung her scythe in a wide arc and Purple Heart was caught off-guard as a large pink energy wave was launched at her, slamming into her with an incredible amount of force and sending her flying into and through the castle walls.

"Nnngh..." Purple Heart shook her head as she sat up in the rubble. "...She seriously increased her power from masturbation?" Purple Heart couldn't believe that Green Void could do something like that. "...I almost want to learn how she can do that."

Getting up and causing the dirt, dust and rubble on her to fall off, she flew back into the battle and saw Green Void glowing pink again. "Dang it!" When Green Void swung another large arc of energy at her, she held her sword to the side and let it glow with energy before spinning around a couple of times and swinging her blade at the oncoming energy wave, sending her own white energy wave into the pink wave, cutting through and shattering the energy wave.

"I'm impressed!" Green Void licked her fingers of her own fluids. "This is so much fun." She grinned at Purple Heart.

Purple Heart's mind was racing. 'How can I beat her if she keeps just increasing her power by masturbating?' She made a mental note to NEVER let either of her Verts or Plutia know about this trick if she ever figured it out. The last thing she wanted was for any of them to do this in the middle of a fight to increase their stats.

Even if it would be insanely hot.

Even if the reactions that Noire and Blanc would have would be absolutely hilarious.

'Focus, Neptune! You can fantasize about funny and sexy situations later!' Purple Heart chided herself. "I have a question... Why are you trying to kill P-Ko if she can't transform?" She needed to focus on something rather than the way that Green Void was using her sexiness to distract her.

"It's *SO* tedious!" Green Void groaned out while keeping her scythe up in a defensive position. "I've done it six times before and let me tell you, it's BORING after awhile." She shook her head and sighed heavily. "Really, you're doing me a favor, taking her off of my hands."

"But that..." Purple Heart trailed off as her mind wasn't seeing Green Void anymore, but something else entirely.

*Flash*

"Neptune!" Histoire glared at the CPU in her human form as she laid on her stomach and was playing games. "I know that you're a new CPU and all that, but you should do your work! Don't you know how hard it is on all of us when you slack off?"

"Aww!" Neptune pouted at Histoire. "But it's boring! And it's not like Planeptune's in any sort of danger of falling apart."

"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!" Histoire yelled, causing Neptune to jump. "I must stress that if you do not do your work that your shares will drop and if they fall too low, you'll lose the ability to transform and if they fall even further than that, you could die!" She gave Neptune a sad look. "So..."

"...Fine..." Neptune sighed and put her controller down. "Can you save the game for me then?"

*End Flash*

"Really..." Green Void huffed in annoyance as Purple Heart shook her head to clear the memory away. "I'd rather spend all day having sex. But no, it's all," Green Void pitched her voice to be annoying and whiny, "wahh! Lady Green Void, we can't keep up! Please let us rest," she scoffed at that, "or "wahh! Lady Green Void, the monsters from the maze are coming in! Please stop them!" She cleared her throat and shook her head. "Can't those losers deal with their own problems for once? It's not like the nation's falling apart or anything."

Purple Heart could only stare at her, but she said nothing. 'This is...'

*Flash*

"Really!" Histoire from the Ultra Dimension frowned at Plutia and Neptune. "You two have done nothing but laze about the entire time you've been here, Neptune!" The mini-fairy glared at Neptune. "I expect this from Plutia, because I cannot make her work, but you... ARRGH!"

Neptune just giggled nervously. "Well, uh... I've never really been good at doing paperwork or anything..." She trailed off as Histoire's glare increased.

"THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT BETTER!" Histoire yelled so loudly that both Plutia and Neptune were blasted into the wall. "THAT'S IT! YOU TWO! GO TO LASTATION! AND DON'T YOU COME BACK WITHOUT LEARNING HOW TO BE AN ACTUAL CPU!"

"But..." Neptune tried to protest.

"NOW!" Histoire yelled, causing both CPUs to jump to their feet and rush out of the Basilicom.

*End Flash*

"...It kind of sucks when your own flaws are thrown in your face like this." Purple Heart muttered softly. If she got back she really owed both Histoires an apology over everything.

"So you understand?" Green Void smiled at Purple Heart. "It's so... Annoying to have to do something so boring. And really, depriving Gamworld of my sexy body would be a crime."

"I..." Purple Heart lowered her head as her hair covered her eyes. "...Yeah, I can understand... Doing things you don't like is no fun."

"See?" Green Void smiled at Purple Heart. "So how about we stop fighting and you just become my pet for a month? I'll train you to be the perfect little sex toy. You'll be the best anal slut around." She blinked as Purple Heart started to chuckle. "...What?"

Purple Heart raised her head to give Green Void a small smirk. "Sorry, but I'm not into having things shoved up my butt."

Green Void sighed and shook her head. "Too bad, you have a great ass, it's going to waste not being plundered and used." She rushed in, her robotic hands swinging her scythe around in arcs that were wide, but fast and were hard to see an opening through the swings.

'Now!' Purple Heart's pupils shrank as she suddenly rushed in and struck Green Void's attack, knocking it off course and landing a few more blows on her body before knocking her to the ground. "Thank goodness for that Cross Combo Counter." She muttered to herself and flew down after Green Void, who was looking up at her and smirking.

"Well..." Green Void smirked, not looking the least bit hurt, "that was fun." Suddenly the air around her was filled with miniature scythes that started to spin and flew towards Purple Heart, who had to twist and parry each strike.

Purple Heart held her hand in the air as a giant digital blade formed and she launched it at Green Void, who merely sent dozens upon dozens of miniature scythes at the blade, crashing against it before shattering it.

"Not bad!" Green Void chuckled and flew up at Purple Heart, who was rushing down at her, their weapons clashing in a shock-wave. "Oh? You're not blocking near my scythe blade? Surely that must be harder to block."

"I'd rather not risk my head getting cut off." Purple Heart said as she leaned back and tilted her blade, allowing Green Void to slide forward. Reaching up, she grabbed Green Void's arm and in a move that surprised both Green Void and everyone watching, she twisted, spun and kicked the Leanbox CPU to the ground with a loud crash before floating down after her.

"Impressive." Green Void chuckled as she got up effortlessly. "That is more fun than I thought possible. I'm getting so turned on right now..." She poked her own boobs and shivered. "Mmm... My nipples are so hard. Do you want a taste?"

"And I thought Sadie was freaky." Purple Heart muttered to herself. 'Even though I'm landing blows on her, it doesn't look like I'm doing any real damage.'

There was a crackle in the air and the air itself seemed to whine in pain causing both Purple Heart and Green Void to turn to see what was going on.

Before either of them could react, a streak of light rushed across the top of Green Void's breasts, causing her eyes to widen as she felt a burning sensation across her chest.

A short distance away was Rom, who was panting and glaring at Green Void. "You monster!" She yelled at the Leanbox CPU.

Green Void didn't hear her as she looked at her breasts in horror and slowly put a trembling hand on them, as though she couldn't believe what just happened. "...My boobs... My perfectly shaped, perfectly bouncy boobs..." She could see a red mark forming and a look of sheer, primal rage crossed her face. "NO ONE DARES TO HURT MY PERFECT BREASTS! **YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!**" She screamed as she was engulfed in a red light with black numbers.

"Well... Fuck!" Purple Heart muttered as she watched Green Void transform again.

"I, GREEN NIGHTMARE, WILL TEAR YOU APART!" Green Nightmare's voice, which was deeper than Green Void's voice, was heard from inside the pillar of light.

To be continued...

* * *

I've already written the next chapter and I can tell you this... Green Nightmare freaks *ME* out. That is all.

And I hope that you all liked it. Sorry if it doesn't live up to what you were building in your mind.

*Crawls under the bomb shelter*


	21. Green Nightmare

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

And Green Nightmare freaks me right the fuck out.

* * *

Chapter 18

"Rom, get back!" Purple Heart cried out as the pillar of light faded and she got a good look at Green Nightmare.

What she saw was... Horrifying, in more than one way.

Green Nightmare's lower body, where there should have been legs, was a giant spider thorax, interestingly enough her ass and crotch were on full display, despite her legs being basically melded with a spider's body. Where her arms should have been were two giant spider legs, she was grinning and basically naked, though her breasts were held by what looked like her own ribs, though they seemingly held onto her breasts like fingers...

...And the way they were squeezing her breasts made the flesh bulge through the gaps while her erect nipples stood tall and proud. The hole in her chest, like White Nightmare's hole had been, was glowing red with power.

"...I was half expecting that to be how you covered your breasts in your normal HDD form..." Purple Heart muttered as she tried to ignore the tentacles coming out of Green Nightmare's back and the bone-like mask on her face.

Green Nightmare opened her mouth and everyone shuddered in fear as it opened like a snake that just unhinged its jaw. "I SHALL RUIN ALL OF YOU!" Her voice was not only deeper, but louder and strangely enough higher at the same time. If Purple Heart had to describe it, she would have said that the voice was screaming a high-pitched scream while the words came out a lower pitch so they could be heard.

It was... Off-putting in ways that even Green Void's open perversion were not.

"Rom! Move!" Purple Heart yelled as she rushed at Green Nightmare, who laughed and leaped at Purple Heart.

(-)

"That answers that question." Chrome muttered as she saw this. 'All Voids have a Nightmare form? That sucks.' Still, this might be useful. Looking at the way the people were trying to escape, only to find that the doors out of the place were locked, she nodded and spied a chair not far away. Running to it, she jumped on it and put her fingers in her mouth and whistled, getting the masses to turn and look at her. "Listen! Purple Heart is fighting Green Nightmare! Do you see what was ruling you?"

"This isn't right! This isn't right!" Several of the people started to cry out in despair. "OUR SEXY, ABUSIVE, HORRIBLE, TORTUROUS BUT SEXY CPU IS THIS MONSTER?!"

"YOU ALL MAKE ME SICK!" Rom yelled at the group, causing them to stare at the small, though somewhat busty, brunette in shock. "You act like you worship that monster!"

"But if we don't do what she says she'll..." One of the people in the crowd trailed off. "She already castrated several men and did horrible things to the women."

"...I have no idea what that term means." Rom answered and looked at Chrome, who sighed.

"She did horrible things to the men, leave it at that." Chrome answered and looked at them. "Do you want to be ruled by that monster?"

"But she..." The people looked at Green Nightmare in confusion, fear and all sorts of other emotions they didn't know how to handle. "But she gives us..."

Chrome sighed heavily and slumped. 'Dammit, I was afraid of this... They might fear and hate Green Nightmare but they're dependent on her.' She couldn't imagine how the Leanbox CPU had managed to keep them loyal, even if they were fearful of her, for all this time.

"If you like pretty women, then worship Big Sis Neptune!" Ram suddenly yelled and pointed at Purple Heart. "She's really nice, pretty and won't hurt you if you screw up! She won't make you do what you don't want."

"Ram's right!" Chrome's eyes widened as she realized how to get to these people. "Does not your CPU lust after Purple Heart? Should that not tell you that if you want to lust after a CPU, why not lust after one who is trying to help you?!"

"So we need to be afraid of the purple one?" One of the crowd asked as they watched while Green Nightmare wrapped a tentacle around Purple Heart's leg and slammed her into the ground and dragged her across the ground before flinging her into a far wall where no one was.

"No!" Filyn yelled at them. "Don't fear Purple Heart! You need to believe in her! Put faith and trust in her and she'll win!"

"...Faith?" One man spoke up. "Um... I suppose I'm not afraid of her, but..."

"Screw it!" Another man spoke up as he looked at the two battling CPUs. "I believe in the purple one! Green Void ripped my balls off because I couldn't please her enough."

Chrome sighed in relief as that started to spark a change across the crowd. Even if it was only a few, the more people that believed in Purple Heart, the better it was for her. 'Still...' She watched as Purple Heart sent several energy blades Green Nightmare, who avoided them by jumping and running around them. 'This is bad.' She jumped off the chair and looked at Rom, Ram and Filyn. "Rom, Ram, Filyn... We're going to have to help Purple Heart." She looked at Peashy, who was looking at the fight in worry. "Peashy." The little girl jumped in surprise and looked at Chrome. "I'm not going to ask you to fight against Green Nightmare, but I want you to stay out of the way in case something goes wrong."

Peashy nodded as the others ran towards the fight.

(-)

"IS THIS ALL YOU HAVE?!" Green Nightmare yelled as she slammed her tentacles onto Purple Heart, sending the purple CPU to the ground. "I THINK I'LL ENJOY YOU NOW!" Her tentacles wrapped around Purple Heart's arms and legs and spread them as she held the CPU in the air. "MMMM! DELICIOUS! TIME TO FEED!" She laughed as she sent two tentacles up and started to wrap around Purple Heart's breasts, getting a grimace from the purple CPU.

"Dammit, this story's gotten too close to being a porn story already!" Purple Heart growled as she formed several digital swords around her. "Just stop YEEK!" She yelped as she felt her ass get struck rather hard and rapidly. "Did you just..."

Green Nightmare's grin was disturbing. "NO NAUGHTY FIGHTING! TIME FOR NAUGHTY FUN INSTEAD!"

The tentacles struck her ass again and again, causing Purple Heart to jerk from each attack and wince as her rear got more and more sore. "Just so you know, I'm not a masochist, this isn't turning me on."

"AWW, BUT DON'T WORRY ABOUT THAT." Green Nightmare laughed, a loud, cackling laugh. "WHEN I'M DONE WITH YOU, YOU'LL BE THE BEST MASOCHISTIC ANAL SLUT WHO WILL CRAVE MY TENTACLES!"

"...No, I don't think so." Purple Heart growled as several blades formed and cut through the tentacles holding her, freeing her and allowing her to rush towards Green Nightmare. "I'm sick of your perversions!" Purple Heart flew up as Green Nightmare jumped out of the way.

"BUT YOU WOULD LOOK SO *CUTE* WITH A BUNCH OF TENTACLES SHOVED IN YOU AND I BET YOUR O-FACE IS THE BEST ONE I'D EVER SEE!" Green Nightmare countered as she used her arm-legs to parry Purple Heart's attack. Despite being parried, Green Nightmare was pleasantly surprised to see that Purple Heart quickly recovered and wasn't allowing her arm-legs to strike her. "HOW NICE! BUT YOUR BACKSIDE IS OPEN!"

Two tentacles slithered across the ground towards Purple Heart at rapid speeds, only to get stopped by a digital sword slamming into them from above.

"This place is going to give me nightmares." Purple Heart muttered as flames surrounded her sword. "BLAZE BREAK!"

"OWWIES!" Green Nightmare cried out as she blocked the attack and was pushed back. "HOW MEAN!" She pouted at Purple Heart. "DON'T YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE? HAVING TENTACLES SHOVED INTO YOU? TO BE MADE INTO A TENTACLE BREEDING FACTORY?"

"Not at all!" Purple Heart snapped back. "I've had enough tentacles in my life, I don't need more."

Green Nightmare sighed as Purple Heart got closer. "TOO BAD!" Suddenly Green Nightmare's breasts started to swell before a gush of milk came rushing out of her erect nipples and covered Purple Heart's face, hair, and chest, causing the purple CPU to cough as a good amount went into her mouth as she reflexively swallowed it while she went through the stream and slammed her sword into Green Nightmare's forearm-leg things.

Purple Heart shook her head as the milk ran down her face. "And what was..." Her eyes widened as she felt her body starting to go slack while her internal temperature started to rise.

"GYAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Green Nightmare laughed as she watched Purple Heart stagger and try to stand up. "MY BREAST MILK IS SO USEFUL! FULL OF USEFUL THINGS LIKE A PARALYZING AGENT AND AN APHRODISIAC THAT WILL MAKE YOUR HEAD SPIN!" She licked her lips as Purple Heart sank to her knees and panted heavily. "NOW THEN!" Tentacles shot out again, wrapping around Purple Heart's arms and legs and spreading them wide as she lifted Purple Heart into the air. "IT'S TIME FOR THE FUN TO BEGIN!"

Tentacles erupted out of her back and slid under Purple Heart's processor to wrap around the purple CPU's breasts directly and pull them out and into the open. "NNNGH!" Purple Heart groaned as her boobs were roughly handled. "St...stop..." She groaned as she felt the tentacle tips flick over her nipples, which were quickly hardening. Tears started to well up in her eyes. "No... Stop! I don't want this."

"GAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Green Nightmare laughed as she saw Purple Heart getting turned on. "HOW CUTE! YOU THINK I'LL STOP? OF COURSE NOT! LET'S SEE HOW YOU LOOK DOWN THERE NEXT!"

Purple Heart winced as she felt tentacles slide across her ass. "StoGAH!" She started to choke as a tentacle wrapped around her throat and forced her mouth open while another one ran across her lips, teeth and even brushed against her tongue.

"YES! I'LL TURN YOU INTO A MONSTER'S NURSERY BED!" Green Nightmare grinned as she rubbed a tentacle across Purple Heart's ass and between her legs. "NOW! LET'S SEE JUST WHAT YOU ARE LIKE DOWN HERE!" Purple Heart shuddered as the tentacle between her legs slid under her processor and rubbed her crotch directly. "DO YOU SHAVE OR DO YOU LET IT GROW OUT NATURAGACK!" She cried out as she felt something wrap around her throat and head and pull on them. "WHAT THE?!" She shrieked in pain.

"ROM! RAM! FILYN! NOW!" Chrome yelled as she held her razor wires taught, causing Green Nightmare to stagger backwards in pain.

"Wind acceleration!" Ram yelled as Filyn, who was holding a metal staff, ran forward. With a blast of wind magic, the one-eyed girl was launched into Green Nightmare and slammed her staff deep into the hole in the big breasted monster's chest.

"ROM!" Filyn yelled as she jumped away while Rom's hands crackled with lightning.

"FRY!" Rom screamed as lighting arced through the air and into the metal pole, causing Green Nightmare's entire body to light up with lightning.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!" Green Nightmare screamed in a mix of pain and pleasure as she dropped Purple Heart out of reflex.

Snapping her razor wires off of her fingers, as they were made of metal, Chrome ran to the downed Purple Heart. "Neptune!" She shook the purple CPU, who groaned and shivered. "Dammit..."

"It..." Purple Heart's face was flush as she shivered. "I'm really turned on right now... That stuff she doused me with... It's really messing with me."

"I can imagine." Chrome said and looked at Green Nightmare, who was screaming and starting to glow. "Listen, I don't think that's going to stop her. She doesn't have a weapon for me to use on her like I did back in Lowee. Do you have any sort of plan?"

Purple Heart panted and was grateful that the paralysis had finally worn off as she was able to move her arms to tuck her boobs back into her processor. "I... I don't know if it'll work, but she's really strong because of the Fearicite..."

Chrome's eyes widened as she realized exactly what Purple Heart was hinting at. "Okay, you seem to know this CPU. If you were her, where would you put it?"

Purple Heart got to her knees and shivered. 'Dammit, so turned on right now.' She could feel her body reacting in ways that she really didn't want to think about.

"STOP MESSING WITH ME!" Green Nightmare screamed as tentacles wrapped around and pulled the metal rod out of her chest hole and threw it away. While she was crackling and smoking, she was mostly unharmed. "I'LL TURN YOU ALL INTO SEEDBEDS FOR THIS!"

Purple Heart looked up and in her hazy state of mind noticed something that stood out with the castle. "...Keep her busy, I've got a plan."

Chrome nodded and turned to face Green Nightmare as more razor wires formed in her hands. Running towards the CPU, though at a circular angle, the wires seemed to move on their own. "Hey! Bitch! I'm the one you want!"

"OH NO!" Green Nightmare yelled as dozens of tentacles erupted out of her back, chasing down Filyn, Rom, Ram and Chrome. "NOT ONE AT A TIME, ALL OF YOU AT ONCE!"

"YEEK!" Ram yelled as she blasted one with water before she was struck in the back and tentacles wrapped around her body and squeezed her.

"YES! I'LL START WITH YOU!" Green Void chuckled, before groaning in pain as the tentacle that held up Ram was cut into pieces. "BITCH!" She screamed and lashed out with tentacles at Chrome, who was dodging them as best she could.

"Dammit, this is..." Chrome's eyes widened as she slipped on some slime on the ground. "FUCK!"

"YOU MOST CERTAINLY ARE!" Green Nightmare screamed as tentacles wrapped around Chrome and lifted her in the air with her face angling down towards the ground and her rear end was held high in the air. Ram quickly joined her as she was lifted up again by tentacles and she struggled to try and get free.

"Leave my sister alone!" Rom yelled as she blasted at Green Nightmare with lightning magic, only to cry out as a tentacle stabbed her in the butt and another tentacle wrapped around her neck before pushing into her mouth while the one that stabbed her butt wrapped around her and lifted her into the air.

"HEY!" Filyn threw a metal pole at Green Void, only to miss as it flew far to the right. "DAMMIT!" She screamed before her legs were grabbed and she was pulled into the air, upside down.

"NOW! WHO SHOULD I PLAY WITH FIRST?!" Green Nightmare chuckled darkly.

"HEY! YOU UGLY, OATMEAL SKIN, LOOSE, FLOPPY, TIT-SAGGING BITCH!" Purple Heart yelled from where she was, causing the Leanbox CPU to look up at her with anger.

"WHAT ARE..?" Green Nightmare suddenly paled and her eyes widened. "YOU WOULDN'T DARE!"

In the sky, next to a wall that was destroyed, was Purple Heart, and on the other side of the destroyed wall was a glowing red rock. "SORRY, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" Purple Heart turned to the Fearicite. "Time to die! DUAL EDGE!" She flew in and swung her sword in a wide arc, shattering the Fearicite into pieces.

"NOOOOOOOO!" Green Nightmare screamed in agony as it felt like her entire being was suddenly shattered. The tentacles holding up the others suddenly lost their strength and dropped them to the ground as Green Nightmare staggered and held her right arm over the hole in her chest. "NOOOOO!" She threw her arms to the side and stiffened as light erupted from the hole in her chest.

Chrome stood up and watched as Green Nightmare returned to her human form. "Nicely done." She watched as Purple Heart floated to the ground, sweat on her forehead as she panted hard. "Are you okay?"

Purple Heart shook her head. "No... I'm hot, tingly and I'm having a hard time thinking straight right now."

"What..?" Vert, standing there naked, panted as she looked at herself before glaring at Purple Heart. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!"

Purple Heart grinned as she released her transformation back to Neptune. "Well, it's like... Without your Fearicite, you can't gather enough bad feelings to keep your transformation up." She looked at Chrome and winked. "Right?"

Chrome smirked and nodded. "That's right. No Fearicite," she looked at Vert, who was pale, "no ability to transform. You're just a human now."

"I'm still the CPU of Leanbox!" Vert yelled and turned, her large breasts swaying wildly. "People of Leanbox! I'm still your CPU! Give me... Huh?" She stopped as she watched Peashy walk up to her. "What do you want?"

"...You hurt Pea... FOR NO REASON!" Peashy suddenly ran at speeds that shocked Vert before jumping and headbutting the naked and busty blonde in the stomach so hard that her eyes bugged out as she gasped in pain while she went flying.

Crashing onto her back Vert groaned as her breasts flopped around so hard that they almost felt like they were going to tear off. "That..."

"YOU HURT PEA!" Peashy yelled and was standing on Vert before brutalizing the busty blonde's boobies with bombastic blows, causing Vert to cry out in a mixture of pain and pleasure. "WHY?!" She asked and bit, hard, on Vert's left breast, tearing at it and causing her to bleed.

"OOOOWW!" Vert cried out, tears in her eyes. "STOP! Come on! Aren't I your big sister?"

"You're wrong." Neptune said as she walked forward, a stern look on her face. "You're a monster that looks like my friend." Vert gave her a confused look as Peashy stopped biting and looked at Neptune in confusion as well. "The real Vert wants nothing more than a little sister for herself." She stamped her foot down and pointed at Vert. "You're a monster that already killed six of your little sisters! The real Vert would rather cut her own boobs off than hurt her little sister."

Peashy suddenly sniffled and got off the naked blonde and ran over to Neptune. "Do... Do you mean it, Neptuna?"

Neptune nodded and knelt down to hug Peashy. "Yeah. The real Vert might smother you in her boobs when she hugs you, but she would never hurt you like this one did."

"You can take her." Vert said as she cradled her injured boob. "I said that, didn't I? You won, I won't even bother to try and keep you here."

Her vision was blocked by two angry kids. "Huh?" Vert looked at them. "What do you two want? You beat me."

"You're a monster." Rom muttered her hands crackling with magical energy. "You tried to do bad things to us and to big sis Neptune."

"Uh huh..." Ram nodded as magic started to form around her. "If we leave you, you'll hurt the people here."

Vert paled and turned to crawl away while she tried to get to her feet before she got blasted by an electrical attack to her ass, sending her to the ground.

The twins had tears in their eyes as they looked at Vert. "You... You'd hurt Peashy... You'd hurt us! You'd hurt everyone the same way..." Ram began as blade of water formed around her. In her mind, she wasn't seeing Vert...

But rather a blue-haired, flat-chested monster that had tormented her and Rom for most of their life.

"You'd do mean things to us with those slimy tentacle things!" Rom continued, tears in her eyes. "YOU ME..."

Both girls were stopped as they felt a hand on their shoulders. Turning, they saw Neptune shaking her head at them. "But..." They both protested and Neptune turned them to look at her.

"Now now..." Neptune said as she smiled at them. "We don't need to do that just yet."

"Yes!" Vert smiled at Neptune. "See, I knew someone who understood me would..." She trailed off as Neptune glared at her. "What?"

"I was hoping... That Blanc wasn't what all Voids were like." Neptune stood up and shuddered. "But after seeing you trying to kill P-Ko..." Her eyes started to water. "I hate you... I hate you more than anything in the world right now, Vert. I'd rather eat an eggplant than look at you for one more minute."

"So what will you do?" Chrome asked as she stepped forward. "I can deal with her."

Neptune nodded and grabbed Rom and Ram's hands. "Come on, let's leave her to Chromey." She looked at Peashy, who was being approached by Filyn. "P-Ko! Filyn! Come on, let's go into the castle."

The two nodded and followed after Neptune, Rom and Ram.

Vert looked at Chrome and her face was pale as she saw the silver-haired woman looking at her with nothing but raw hate in her eyes. "Wait! Please! I can't transform! I'm just a slut!" She put her hands on her breasts. "Please! I can't GAK!" Vert screamed as her breasts, arms, thighs, neck, nipples and ass were wrapped in razor wire and held taught.

"Shut up." Chrome snarled at her. "It's because of abominations like you that this world has gone to Hell! So just DISAPPEAR!"

The crowd watched as Vert let out a scream when Chrome yanked on her arms and they could only watch in dismay as they saw the blood and carnage happen.

A few moments later, Vert was laying on the ground, her body in bloody pieces.

CPU Green Void was no more.

To be continued...

* * *

Well... That was brutal. Now you see why she freaked me out.

And no, I don't know why I was suddenly hit with the urge to do alliteration with Peashy pounding on Vert there. XD

BTW, if you were curious about Green Nightmare's form, look up Saya from Taimanin Asagai. Warning, very dark hentai anime.


	22. Aftermath

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

And now the aftermath of Green Nightmare.

No, we're not leaving Leanbox right away. You're going to find out just HOW messed up this nation really was.

* * *

Chapter 19

"Compa..." IF sighed as she walked onto the top deck of the boat turned airship. "Come on, you should come back inside. It hasn't even been a day."

"I know..." The amputee girl sighed softly as she looked at the maze that made up most of Leanbox. "I just wish that there was..." She trailed off as the sky itself turned red from a beam of light that shot straight into the sky. "Iffy! That's..!"

"Yeah!" IF nodded, remembering what happened when White Void had died. "They must have won."

"I hope so." Compa replied. "I hope so."

(-)

Back at the castle...

Neptune was panting and staggering as she walked in with the younger girls. "Oh man... This is worse than that time Ram tricked me with expired pudding."

"HUH?!" Ram and Rom both looked at her in shock.

"Not you two," Neptune smiled, her face flush as she felt really hot and uncomfortable in her parka, "the Ram from my world is a really big prankster."

"Oh." Both of them nodded, but they were giving Neptune a concerned look.

"Neptuna..?" Peashy tugged on Neptune's parka. "Are you okay? You look like you're about to pass out."

Neptune staggered and shivered. "I..." She winced. 'Neppit, that milk I got sprayed with, it's like I was just with those naughty tentacles in the maze again.'

"Excuse me." A new voice spoke up and the group looked as they saw a tall girl with mint green hair, red eyes and light colored skin who was wearing a light green dress. "I saw your fight against Green Void."

"You're..." Neptune trailed off and wobbled.

"Oh! How rude of me." The woman curtsied to them. "My name is Chika Hakozaki, former handmaiden of Green Void."

"Oh yeah! It's Chika! Man, I'm surprised! You haven't shown up outside of DLC since the events of the second game. You didn't even get into the anime!" Neptune's eyes lit up. "You're looking good!"

"Uh..." Chika looked at Neptune in confusion. "I... Guess?" She appreciated the compliment, but the rest of what she said was confusing.

"Ignore her," Chrome said as she walked into the Basilicom, a tired expression on her face. "Do you have beds? I'd like to rest for a few hours."

"Of course." Chika nodded and looked at Neptune. "But, um... Lady... Purple..."

"Just call me Neptune." Neptune smiled at her. "What's up?"

"You drank a lot of Green Void's breast milk." Chika pointed out. "I've seen what even a few drops of that does to a person."

Chrome sighed softly. "Is it like the tentacle slime?"

"Worse." Chika said to her. "Green Void once punished a man by stripping him naked, tying him up and making him drink just a small amount of her breast milk. A few drops." She winced at the memory. "His dick eventually exploded in blood and cum and he was left there and bled to death."

"WHAT?!" Neptune yelled, her face both pale and flushed. "That's..."

"Yes." Chika nodded to her. "And I've been punished by Green Void with her breast milk before. Just a small amount for me as well, but unlike that man, I was allowed to deal with it on my own. Even after ten days I still was in need of relief. Green Void then helped me out and explained that it goes away faster with someone helping you out."

Neptune's face turned scarlet and steam started to come out of her ears. "But that's not... No way! I'm not into casual..."

"Neptune," Chrome interrupted her. "Either she helps you or I do. I'm not going to have you die or go insane from the sensations."

The kids were looking at the other three in confusion, but when they heard that, they all stared in absolute shock and looked at Neptune in worry.

"Big Sis Neptune!" Rom grabbed Neptune's hands and squeezed. "If this lady can help you, you should take it!" Ram nodded at her.

"I don't know what's going on, but it sounds like that milk was like poison or something." Filyn said, "and she says she can help you, you should have her help you."

"Please, Neptuna?" Peashy pouted at her. "I don't want you to die."

Seeing Neptune looking unsure, Chika cleared her throat. "You need not worry, this will be strictly professional if that makes you feel better."

"It doesn't..." Neptune whimpered, but she could feel that Chika wasn't exactly lying. "Neppit, I'm so going to Hell when I'm done here, huh?" She sighed and hung her head. "F...Fine! But I don't..." She jumped as Chrome squeezed her shoulder. "Chrome?"

"I can help you, or you can have this young lady help you."

Neptune blushed more and pointed at Chika. "Um, sorry, I just..."

"It's fine," Chrome said to her and looked at the kids while Chika helped Neptune out of the area. "While the nice lady helps Neptune, how about we explore this place?"

The kids nodded and all of them ran into the castle to look around.

(-)

Neptune was blushing hard as she was pushed into a bedroom. "Um... This is..."

"My room." Chika said as she locked the door and began to strip out of her clothes. "Just so you know," she gave Neptune a sharp look, "I'm only doing this because you got rid of that monster for us."

Neptune looked at Chika and was about to say something when she got out of her dress and pushed Neptune onto the bed. "Um... Author, can we please skip this? We know that it's going to be sexy time and there's been plenty in the story already, so pretty please?"

As the light turned black, Neptune sighed in relief. "Thank you!"

(-)

Meanwhile...

Chrome looked at one of the men, who was still dressed in that bodyguard get up and fought the urge to blush. 'I'll give that monster some credit, she certainly knew what looked good.'

"Hey, Chromey..?" Filyn looked at her in confusion. "What will we do about the others back on the ship?"

Chrome sighed softly and rubbed her forehead as she thought about it. "If we could get them to come in, it would be easy, but there's no space to fly a boat turned airship."

"Is that all?" One of the men asked, getting a confused look from Chrome. "The courtyard could easily host an airship, if it's not too big. Many of the walls we have out there can actually be lowered and moved." Chrome and the others stared at him in shock. "Green Void sometimes liked to change the look of her castle, so she made it so the walls could move if she wanted more courtyard space or less."

"But what about the barrier that covers the top of the maze?" Chrome asked him. "We thought about having Purple Heart fly us straight to the castle, but with the barrier we thought better of it."

The man tilted his head. "You mean the barrier that the Fearicite was powering? I'm pretty sure that it's gone now."

"...Got any communication equipment then?"

"Of course," the man nodded, "follow me."

Rom and Ram looked at each other and followed after Chrome, both of them staring at the man as he walked away. They still weren't exactly sure why, but they found looking at him was pretty nice.

Especially since his muscular butt cheeks were on display.

Filyn and Peashy looked at each other in confusion and shrugged. They had no clue why anyone would like to look at butt cheeks anyway.

(-)

Back at the ship, Gust was sitting in front of the communication equipment in case there was someone trying to contact them. "Gust almost wishes that there was something going on."

There was a static noise and Gust jumped in surprise before pushing several buttons and turning dials. "Repeat, Gust did not hear before."

"I was saying," Chrome's voice came through clearly at that point, "get your tiny ass to the castle, we're moving walls so you can land that boat here. I'm sure you're bored by now."

"Roger roger!" Gust said and ran out the door to find Linda. Thankfully it only took her a few seconds to find the green haired girl. "Linda! Chrome says we can land at the castle now!"

Linda shrugged and went to the control room. "Well, don't blame me if we can't land there then."

It only took them a few minutes to fly to the center of Leanbox and Linda stared in absolute shock as walls folded into themselves like a sliding door while others went into the ground. "I'll be damned, there's enough room now." She might have been able to land before, but it would have been a very tight fit and she could have damaged the ship.

(-)

Standing in a control room, Chrome nodded and looked at the men around her. "...Well, this looks uncomfortable..."

"We put the young girls in a large room so they could rest and relax." One of the men said and gulped at Chrome's look. "Is there something wrong?"

"You aren't to touch those girls." Chrome pointed out, getting a nod from the men. "There are four girls and a rat on that ship, you will not touch them either, do you understand?"

"What if one of them asks?" The man shivered and looked like he was about to piss himself at the look he was given.

"Um, miss..." Another man spoke up and got a look of annoyance from Chrome. "Green Void might have had everyone from her nation trained to be able to please her and to be prepared for it since we were young, but one of Green Void's rules was that you only make a move if the other party agrees to it."

That... Was not what Chrome was expecting in the slightest. "...I would have suspected that she would have not cared if you decided to have a little fun without permission." After all, Green Nightmare sure didn't seem like she cared with those tentacles and threatening to turn her and the other young girls into seedbeds.

"Unless you're in the breeding rooms," one of the men said, "you are allowed to say no."

"But no one said no to her." One of the other men said. "Because she talked to her partners like she talked to the purple CPU that fought her."

"So she never forced herself on anyone and seduced them, but her punishments were pretty harsh." Chrome shook her head. "So now what? Are you going to look for revenge against us? Trick me or Neptune into the breeding room? What?"

"...We don't know." One of the men said after a couple of minutes.

"...I do know that you're pretty sexy though." Another man spoke up, "if you want to, we'd be..."

Chrome shook her head. "No. I'm flattered, but no." It wasn't like she didn't appreciate the thought. And heck, if the Voids weren't such monsters and Gamworld wasn't such a shitty place because of them, she would have taken them up on their offer.

'...After all, I deserve nothing. Not after abandoning my people to that monster just to save myself and my sister.' Even if they ended up in Eden during this trip, even if they killed the Void that was running Eden...

...Chrome knew that she could never be forgiven for her sins.

"Miss..." One of the men nearest to her looked at her in concern, though how he did that with a mask on was rather amazing. "Are you okay? You look like you want to cry."

"...Don't worry about me." Chrome said and turned to walk off. "I'm not someone who deserves your kindness."

She stopped as a hand was put on her shoulder and she turned to see that a woman, this one with short, spiky gray hair, red eyes and in a halter top and mini-skirt combo, was smiling at her softly. "Someone who saved us from Green Void shouldn't say stuff like that."

"...Who are you?" Chrome asked.

"My name is E-Sha."

Chrome gave her a blank look and shrugged her shoulder before walking off in silence, E-Sha following behind her.

(-)

Warechu pouted as the people of Leanbox were staring at IF and Compa. He knew that IF was rather cute and exotic-looking with the way the burns and scars on her body made her skin look like it was multiple colors. And Compa was flat-out gorgeous. It made him wish that he could turn into a human or find some other way to bridge the species gap between them. "Oh Compa, my Compa..." He sighed softly before yelping as there was a kick to his backside.

"Move it, rat." Linda grumbled, her face blushing as she saw the way some of the people were dressed. "...Okay, if this was a beach, this would be an awesome place for eye candy."

"Gust would need to brush eyes to avoid rotting then." Gust grumbled in annoyance.

"Ladies." One of the guards said and waved at them. "Please come inside, we've been instructed to guide you to some guest rooms to rest and relax. You may look around the castle if you wish."

"Might be fun." IF said, glad she wasn't in need of being rubbed down right away again. "Um... Why are you all dressed like that?"

"Our CPU made it so we had to dress like this." The man replied to her. "She liked to make sure that we were always... Proper for her."

"Iffy, what do he mean by that?" Compa asked, getting a shrug from IF.

"I can think of a few things," Linda muttered. "So where is everyone?"

"Neptune is getting some problems taken care of," Chrome said as she walked out, followed by a woman that none of them recognized, "Filyn, Rom, Ram and the CPU Candidate of Leanbox, Peashy, are currently resting. It's been a long day for us." She sighed and rubbed her forehead.

"Nep Nep got hurt again?" Compa asked, getting a nod from Chrome. "Where is she? I can help her." When Chrome shook her head, Compa blinked in confusion. "But I'm..."

"This one isn't in your field of expertise, I'm afraid." Chrome answered her. "How about we just go and get you all settled in and we'll figure out what's going to happen after this?"

"Sure." They nodded as they were led into the castle.

Compa, Gust and IF all hoped that Neptune was okay. Warechu wondered what happened to her and Linda was too distracted by the muscular butts in front of her and was blushing too much to think straight.

(-)

Hours later...

Neptune was laying on the bed, panting, sweating and trembling as she came down from her latest high. "I think... The burning's gone down now..." She sat up slightly and looked as Chika pulled her head up from between her legs. "Um..." Her face was bright red as she looked at the naked green-haired girl as she got up and walked over to a nearby dresser and pulled out some paper towels to wipe her face. "Thank you."

"It's not a problem." Chika said, her voice somewhat soft. "That's all I'm good for."

Neptune tilted her head in confusion. "What?" Even though Chika's shapely rear was on display, Neptune wasn't looking at it as she focused on Chika's back. The dresser didn't have a mirror on it or Neptune would be seeing the girl's breasts...

...Again, and she had seen them quite a lot in the past few hours.

"What do you mean?" Neptune tried again when Chika was silent.

"I mean, Green Void told me..." Chika turned to look at Neptune, "because I'm twenty-four, I've only got a few more years before I'm useless to everyone, so Green Void was sending me to the breeding pits so I could pop out babies until I was sterile."

Neptune stared in shock. "...What?" She stared at Chika, unable to hide her shock, but the other girl was silent, trembling and closed her eyes.

Chika snapped her eyes open in shock as a flash of light covered the room and the next thing she knew, Purple Heart, still naked, was on the bed before she grabbed Chika and walked back to the bed and sat down and made Chika sit next to her. "Um..." She looked at Purple Heart.

"You've seen me naked and we've done many lewd things together," Purple Heart said, her face slightly red. "So please, don't hide things from me."

The next thing she knew, Chika was hugging her and bawling her eyes out into Purple Heart's chest.

Purple Heart sighed softly. 'It looks like I'm going to have to help more than just P-Ko this time, huh?" As Chika cried, Purple Heart decided that she could put up with it. She'd get the truth out of Chika soon enough. 'What the hell did you do to your people, Vert?' Purple Heart thought to herself as Chika sobbed into her naked chest while Purple Heart rubbed the girl's back.

To be continued...

* * *

Oh hey, it's Chika.

And that poor bastard.

The next chapter will start to show things, I promise.


	23. Breeding Pits

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Fun fact, it was when I was writing the last chapter and this one that I got the inspiration to go back and write C-Sha into Evil!Blanc's backstory.

* * *

Chapter 20

Chrome looked at the girl who was following after her. "E-Sha.. Was it?" The green-eyed girl nodded at her. "What do you want?"

"...Would you be willing to help me?" E-Sha asked, a nervous look on her face. "...My friend, someone I knew from childhood, was sent to the breeding room as soon as she was old enough to start bearing children."

"...Why?" Chrome asked, confused. "What happened?"

E-Sha sighed heavily. "My friend was badly injured in a fall when we were ten. Left a scar on her face and Green Void..."

"She doesn't like damaged goods, huh?" Chrome asked, instantly understanding what E-Sha was talking about. "Alright, I'll come with." Chrome had some idea what she was about to get herself into.

(-)

Several minutes later...

"I thought I was prepared..." Chrome muttered as she and E-Sha walked into the breeding cells. "I was not."

There were women who were naked and visibly pregnant in the cells. Some of them were obviously due any day now, others had just started to show, most of them had looks on their faces of pure despair. As they walked through the cells, Chrome twitched as she saw several girls in pillories being mounted from behind by males. "What the hell are you doing?!" She yelled at them.

"You'll have to ignore them." The guard that was leading her and E-Sha through the cells told her. "Green Void gave them a concoction that keeps them from focusing on anything but breeding. On the plus side, it'll wear off in a few days, so they'll start thinking more clearly then."

"Lovely." Chrome muttered and looked at E-Sha. "Is your friend here?" E-Sha shook her head and trembled. "Are there other rooms?"

The guard nodded and lead her and E-Sha into another section of the breeding cells.

When the smell hit Chrome, she winced. "Oh hell, don't tell me..."

"Tentacle breeding pits?!" E-Sha stared in horror as she and Chrome walked past several doors that were solidly shut, save for a strip near the top so that they could look inside the rooms.

Chrome grimaced as E-Sha turned and puked while they saw one naked woman with her stomach bulging out and looking very deformed. "This is horrible." Chrome thought back to when she was in Eden and had seen this happen to some of the adventurers. She sighed and shook her head sadly. "If your friend is here..."

"She's not." E-Sha coughed as she cleaned her mouth. "Let's go on."

Eventually the two found themselves in front of a metal door and the guard opened it up. "I'm warning you," the man said to them, "the ones in here..." He shook his head. "If your friend is in here, she'd be better off dead."

As the door opened, both E-Sha and Chrome looked inside and at first they didn't see anyone, but they saw that the room itself was a living blob of flesh with girls sticking out of it. "S-SHA?!" E-Sha screamed as she saw her friend, or what was left of her friend as she saw the girl's swollen and deformed stomach, engorged breasts and the scar on the S-Sha's face, which was the only reason that E-Sha recognized her.

"E...Sha..?" The girl had brown hair and green eyes. "Don't... ARRRRGH!" She cried out as tentacles slithered around her. "I...NNNGH! NO! I don't want to give birth again, stop!"

Both E-Sha and Chrome stared in horror while the guard looked on with a neutral expression on his face as S-Sha went into labor.

"E-Sha!" S-Sha looked at her friend with tears in her eyes. "Kill me."

"What?!" E-Sha gasped. "But I..."

"Please?!" She whimpered as she felt the monsters inside of her start to move and make their way out of her. "My arms, my legs, they're both gone... My insides... ARRRRGH!" She cried out as the tentacle monster inside of her slithered out and dropped to the floor. "I've been modified, E-Sha..." She panted and groaned. "All I can do is pump out these monsters. Please?" She whimpered and cried out as she felt another tentacle monster sliding out of her. "I'm already dead, E-Sha! Even if you freed me from this thing, it's regulating my heart, my lungs, my everything."

E-Sha stiffened as she felt a hand on her shoulder. "She's right." Chrome told E-Sha. "I've seen this before. If you're caught by a tentacle monster, you're turned into a seed bed and the eggs inside of you change your body so that you can reproduce with the monsters, but you're unable to live normally afterword." E-Sha gave her a horrified look and Chrome sighed softly. "Sadly, I lack the means to kill all the monsters off right now. I'm pretty sure I can create something that can kill them if I get some time."

"...Please do." E-Sha said and looked at S-Sha. "I...I'm really sorry." She was about to step forward when Chrome grabbed her and pulled her back. "What are you doing? I want to hug her goodbye."

"Don't!" S-Sha and Chrome said at the same time.

Chrome sighed at the sad look in her eyes. "If you do go in here, the wall will reach out and pull you in." Snapping her arms to the side, several razor wires came out at once. "Are you ready?" She looked at S-Sha, who nodded and smiled.

"Thank you... E-Sha, I love you, I'm sorry I have to go out this way. Please, live for me, okay?" E-Sha nodded and her eyes teared up.

When Chrome's razor wires cut S-Sha into pieces, revealing that her blood had turned green, E-Sha shuddered and turned to walk out. "I...I want to be left alone."

"If you want to talk," Chrome said as she pulled her razor wires back in and shook the ichor and blood off of them. "I'll be willing to listen."

E-Sha nodded and walked off.

Chrome sighed softly, truly sorry that she had to do that. 'Sadly, that girl was too far gone to be saved.'

There were things about the world that sucked, and creatures like those were among the worst.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"Have you calmed down now?" Purple Heart asked Chika, who nodded against her. "Okay, now, I want you to take a deep breath and explain yourself."

Chika sniffled and hugged Purple Heart tightly. "See, when I was born I was raised with the knowledge that my job was to be pretty enough to catch Green Void's attention." Purple Heart nodded and rubbed the naked girl's back. "Ten years ago, she chose me out of all the girls my age. It was such a great honor!"

"I can imagine." Purple Heart answered her. "What happened to the others?"

Chika shook her head. "Most of them were allowed to live normal lives, but as soon as they turned twenty-two or so, they'd be forced to be bred. Green Void wanted the best looking women and men to have lots of children."

"I see..." Purple Heart mentally sighed. 'In some ways, she was better than Blanc, allowing the people to live, but in others...'

"However..." Chika shuddered, "if you had an accident that left a bad scar on your body or grew to be ugly, you were sent to be bred with tentacle monsters and other creatures."

"...This is going to sound weird, but I was under the impression that tentacle monsters were natural and wild. Why would Green Void need to breed them?"

"Two reasons, you saw her Nightmare form, right?" Chika asked and shifted so that she was sitting in Purple Heart's lap. "She didn't breed tentacle monsters because she wanted to line the dungeon with them or anything. She took tentacles into her own body to make it more potent. But every time she did, her libido would spike and there would be an orgy that happened as a result."

Purple Heart was blushing while Chika rested her head on the CPU's chest. "I... See... Did she ever use those tentacles?"

Chika shook her head. "No. Her tentacles were for her personal use in her Nightmare form. Anyway..." She sighed softly. "The second reason is because the fluids and other parts of tentacle monsters can be used to actually feed people." She could feel Purple Heart's confusion and smiled softly. "Tentacles can be drained of their fluids and cooked. When ingested, they modify a human's body and can be used to make sure that we're all really sexy when we get older."

"...That's..." Purple Heart had to pause, it wasn't a bad reason, actually. "With the way she makes people have children, she'd need to make sure that there was a ready food supply." Even if the implications were horrific, at least Vert did take care of the people of Leanbox, somewhat.

Chika nodded. "Yes. I've been eating tentacle monster parts since I was old enough to eat solid food." At first it had been kind of gross, but at least it paid off with her being rather sexy. "Anyway, I was fourteen and became Green Void's personal lover and attendant. My job was to make sure that her bed was warm at night and that she woke up every morning by orgasming."

"...Sounds rough." Purple Heart said softly and rubbed Chika's back some more.

"For ten years, Green Void tells me that I'm the most beautiful woman in all of Leanbox," Chika ran a finger over Purple Heart's stomach, "but then a couple of months ago, she starts commenting on how I was getting up in age and that it was time for me to start thinking about children..." She shivered softly. "She told me that she was so fond of me that she would make sure that I was bred by only the most handsome men with the biggest dicks." She sniffled softly. "I mean, I'm not against the idea, but I'd never be allowed anything after that. My whole life would be with a pregnant belly and popping children out. Eventually I would be put in the tentacle breeding rooms," her eyes watered up and she started to cry again, "because my beauty will be gone and Green Void wouldn't have wanted that. She would have used my children to satisfy her sexual urges, and then I'd be used to basically breed food and eventually..." Chika sniffled and bawled incoherently.

"I'm so sorry," Purple Heart said softly. She couldn't imagine how bad things had to be for something like this to be considered normal. As Chika calmed down, she spoke again, "I'm guessing this has gone on for years?" Chika nodded at her. "...Chika... What happens eventually?"

"...Your body is destroyed from within..." Chika answered her, "eventually you become part of the tentacle beast and lose all sense of self."

Purple Heart stared in utter horror. 'That... Holy fuck, that's what..?'

That was horrifying, disgusting and, most importantly of all... It made her want to outlaw tentacle porn across Gamindustri if and when she got back home.

Chika blinked as Purple Heart started to breath heavily. Pushing herself off of Purple Heart, she looked at the way Purple Heart's face was flush and smiled softly. "It's bothering you again?"

Purple Heart shuddered and nodded. "I... I apologize, especially after you said all of that, but I..." She blinked as Chika put a finger on her lips and smiled at her.

"It's okay, I'm a well trained slut after all. I can do this much at least." Chika whispered as she pushed Purple Heart onto the bed. "...I must say, your human form is cute, but this form is..." She licked her lips, "Divine." Both Chika and Purple Heart groaned at the pun.

Purple Heart shivered at her touches and made a mental note to help Chika out in the future.

She wasn't able to think much after that as her desires came rushing back while Chika helped her deal with them.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"So..." A female voice spoke up as the person the voice belonged to stood up from her chair and walked out of the room and outside and looked off in the distance. "First White Void and now Green Void are both dead, huh?"

The person was silent, a contemplative look on her face, before she suddenly smirked. "Interesting. I doubt their people would have done it and I'm not sensing a new CPU taking their place."

"Um..?" A second person, also female, spoke up nervously. "What will you do about it?"

The first person smirked and chuckled. "Nothing. With any luck, the other Voids will be eliminated by this person. It'll save me the trouble at least."

Her eyes gleamed as the sun started to set over the horizon. "I wonder, just who are you?"

One thing was certain...

She couldn't wait to meet the person who was killing the Voids off.

To be continued...

* * *

Uh oh. Mysterious new person? Who could... I'm sure most of you already have an idea.

Poor S-Sha (remember, she and E-Sha were originally two different people) though.

Blame my beta reader, he pointed out that there had to be a way to feed everyone in Leanbox and then the idea popped into my head.


	24. Relaxations

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 21

Ram looked at Rom, Rom nodded at her and the two turned to look at Filyn and Peashy. "You all know what we must do." Ram said while the four sat in the guest room.

"Yes." Filyn nodded, a determined look on her face while Peashy looked on in confusion.

"PILLOW FIGHT!" Rom, Ram and Filyn all yelled at the same time, making Peashy jump a bit while the three other girls ran to the beds at the corner and grabbed pillows off before turning and running back towards the center with a yell.

"BANZAI!" Filyn yelled as she took a wide swing, hitting Rom in the face and knocking her over. The next thing she knew, she was hit on the top of the head by Ram. "Oh, you'll get it!"

"Pea wants to play too!" Peashy yelled as she grabbed two pillows, one in each hand, and jumped off the bed at them, smacking Filyn and sending her flying into a far bed before rolling forward and performing an uppercut via pillow to Rom and sending her flying across the room where she landed on the bed, her butt bouncing on the mattress. "Hahahahahahahaha! This is fun!"

"Gang up on Peashy!" The other three yelled and jumped at Peashy, who let out a shriek and ran away while throwing the pillows at them.

"Get her! She's unarmed!"

"But I have arms!" Peashy waved her arms up and down as the other three girls descended on her and started smacking her with pillows.

The room was filled with giggles and shrieks of laughter as the four girls made an absolute mess of the room.

It was nearly fifteen minutes later when the door opened and Gust walked in. "Oh! This is where you, GACK!" Gust let out a cry as a flying body hit her and flattened her to the ground.

"Ooops!" Ram yelped and got off of Gust. "I'm sorry, are you okay? Peashy hits really hard even with pillows."

"...Gust is used to having flying butts hitting her in the face by now." The blue-haired girl muttered in annoyance. "At least you didn't fart in Gust's face." She grumbled and got up. "Gust should put warning bell on your neck so Gust knows when to duck."

"I'm sorry." Ram looked really sad and Gust sighed as she looked at the sad look.

"Stop, Gust is not angry at you, more annoyed by running gag."

Ram sniffled. "You mean it?" Gust nodded and Ram hugged her tightly. "Thank you!"

Gust wheezed before sighing as Ram let go of her. "You're stronger than you look." It made sense, after all, she was a CPU Candidate and CPUs were always really strong and tough.

"Um..." Peashy raised her hand. "Who are you?"

"Gust is Gust." Gust replied and looked at Peashy. "You're the CPU Candidate of Leanbox?" Peashy nodded at her and Gust gave her a small smile. "Welcome then."

"We were having a pillow fight." Filyn informed Gust. "I kept missing Rom."

"You swung too early," Rom stuck her tongue out, "plus you swing too hard to the right." When Filyn pointed to her nose, Rom blinked and giggled softly. "Okay, your eye is screwed up, huh?"

"I can only see in one eye." Filyn sighed and hung her head. "Chromey says that I have no depth percepoww!" She jumped up and down grabbing at her jaw. "I bith mah tongth..."

"Stop speaking so fast then." Gust shook her head, amused by the antics.

"Do you want to play too?" Ram asked as she looked at Gust. The bunny girl shrugged and nodded before letting out a yelp as several pillows hit her at the same time and buried her.

"...Gust asked for that one." Gust muttered as she got up and grabbed a pillow. "REVENGE FOR GUST!" She yelled and jumped at the Candidates, who all shrieked and giggled in delight.

(-)

One week later...

Chrome looked at Neptune as the two of them and Chika sat around a conference table and sighed. "We have a problem... It's the people down in the breeding rooms. From what you've told me, Chika," she looked at the green haired girl, who nodded at her, "those tentacles are used for food?" She couldn't believe it, well, it made sense, they were made of meat, but the thought of eating a tentacle monster, even if it was dead and drained of the fluids that would negatively affect a person, it made her want to burn the nation to the ground.

Chika sighed and nodded. "Yes. Even if the end result of the people is..." She grimaced at the thought. "Is..."

"Tentacles are a parasitic existence." Chrome answered her. "Even if you remove everything bad about them, they're still..." She sighed and rubbed her forehead. "You already know this, but you're basically asking us to allow people to be sacrificed to the tentacle wall in the breeding rooms, just to keep the food supply going."

"You think I like it?!" Chika shot back and slammed her hands on the table. "I don't know if you noticed, but the only monsters in the maze are tentacle monsters, spider monsters and dogoos! Other types of food have been out of our diet long before I was born."

Chrome sighed, she knew that was true, but still... "I just can't condone people being sacrificed just so that everyone can be fed." She looked at Neptune. "It's your call." Neptune jerked in surprise. "You're the only active CPU in Leanbox. Are you going to sacrifice people to the tentacle monsters or try to find some other way to feed the people here?"

Neptune grimaced at that thought. "...I... Sacrificing people, just so others can survive?" That wasn't something she could imagine doing. "Is there any other way?"

Chika sighed and shook her head. "There's enough food for the people... But only for about a month, maybe two if we stretch it. That's not enough time to stockpile any other food."

Chrome frowned as an idea came to her. "Well..." The other two looked at her in confusion. "It's not going to be popular, but you said you have a month of supplies?" Chika nodded and Chrome stood up. "Okay, make them last, I've got a call to make." She left the room, leaving Neptune and Chika looking at her in confusion.

(-)

"You want to do what?!" Linda yelled in surprise. "Boss, I don't know if you know this, but there's no way that we can feed enough people with the supplies on the ship."

"I know," Chrome said, "that's why I need you to contact Artisan. I need to see about getting food up here. I'm sure that they've got a few airships fixed by now."

"There's no way there's enough food in Lowee for this many people." Linda said to her. "I can get a hold of her, but what can you do?"

"We're stuck here for a month anyway while Neptune recovers from her fight with Green Void," Chrome told her, "so stop mouthing off and get to making that call before I have IF force you to do it."

Linda gave her an annoyed look and turned to leave. "Fine, I'll call Artisan up and see what she says. How many months?"

"We're going to need about three to five months of food." Chrome knew it wouldn't be enough, but it would be a start. "There's more, but I'll tell Artisan directly."

"Fine." Linda sighed as she and Chrome walked back to the ship. "Why couldn't you do it?"

Chrome's expression didn't change, but her cheeks did redden somewhat. "...I'm no good with communication equipment." She thought back to when she was a CPU Candidate and how she had accidentally destroyed her nation's television broadcast system.

*Flash*

Chrome, her hair in a loose ponytail and a fancy gray-colored dress, stared and her eyes watered as she looked at the results of what she did.

"Well..." Her elder sister was fighting to keep from laughing as she looked at the results. "That was unexpected. All you did was try to make an announcement."

"I blew it all up!" Chrome whimpered and sank to her knees, sobbing. "I only pushed one button!"

"These things happen." Her elder had to turn and cough to try and avoid laughing.

*End Flash*

'Good times...' Chrome thought to herself as she thought about her elder sister. Sadly her sister had perished a few years after stepping down from being an active CPU in an event that involved an Ancient Dragon, a stick of butter and one million Lemmings.

(-)

In Lowee...

"You want me to do what?" Artisan asked Chrome via the communication device.

_"There should be several airships ready for travel by now, right?"_

"Well, yes, but..." Artisan looked uncomfortable even though she knew that Chrome couldn't see it as these devices were nothing more than fancy two-way radios. "You need HOW much food?!"

There was a sigh that was heard on the radio. _"Several tons, I know that there's a surplus right now. The people of Leanbox have had to eat... Let's just say, less than savory food. You'll also need to bring some people that can prepare food and teach them how to grow and harvest the food."_

"...What were they eating before if they need this much help?"

_"Tentacle monsters."_

Artisan stared in utter shock. "...Could you repeat that?"

_"You know how tentacle monsters breed, right? Apparently Green Void was creating a bunch of tentacle monsters for the purpose of feeding the citizens of Leanbox."_

"...She was sacrificing her own people for food?!" Artisan hissed in disgust. "That's just... URGH! That's even worse than White Void!" The dead Lowee CPU may have been a bitch and a brat when it came to most things, but at least she never forced her people to become FOOD for the rest of the populous.

_"Yes. Anyway, there's enough food for a month with how many people are here."_

"...How many people are there?" Artisan asked, trying to figure out how much they'd need.

_"...From what I can tell... Easily five to ten times as many people as Lowee."_

Artisan sighed and hung her head. "Alright, I'll see what we can do. It'll take me a few days and I'll call you back when I get it done. But you're going to owe me."

_"Put it on my tab."_ Chrome told her, getting a laugh from Artisan.

"I'll have to collect before the year is out." Artisan smirked at her. "Alright, I'll figure it out."

_"Thanks."_

Artisan sighed as the radio turned off. "You're damn lucky you're my friend." She turned and walked out of the communication room and nodded to Fiancier. "You heard that, right?"

"Of course. Getting enough food, supplies and even people over there shouldn't be too much of a problem." The maid smiled at her. "After all, I'm sure that those who lived with Chrome at the outpost wouldn't mind helping her out again."

"That's fine, but I'm more worried about the cost of getting these ships in the air and getting people over there." Artisan rubbed her forehead. "Well, whatever, let's just help out for now and worry about the price later."

"Right."

(-)

Back in Leanbox...

"Well, that's that." Linda muttered. "So now what?"

Chrome sighed softly and shook her head. "Wait for Neptune to fully recover from her fight against Green Void and for the supplies to get here before moving out, I guess."

"You know..." Linda trailed off and gave Chrome a look as they left the communication room of the ship. "You're being kind of coy about it, what happened? From what I can see she doesn't look injured."

Chrome didn't even bother looking at Linda. "She was poisoned by Green Void and the stuff needs a month to go through her system fully." She smirked and turned to Linda, who was grimacing visibly. "Well?"

"Fair enough." Linda sighed and put her hands behind her head. "So what should we do in the meantime?"

"Get to know our newest friend, Peashy." Chrome answered and grinned at the confused look on Linda's face. "She's the CPU Candidate of Leanbox."

"Huh..." Linda sighed softly. "Well, why not?" Rom and Ram weren't too bad. In fact, she could see that Rom had become more friendly and Ram was losing some of her shyness since the death of White Void. "I wonder what she's like..."

As they got to the courtyard, there was a loud yelling sound as Rom, Ram, Filyn, Gust and a little blonde girl ran past them all giggling and laughing while Gust ran after them.

"Get back here! Gust will teach you to bury her with pillows and blankets!" The blue-haired bunny girl yelled, causing Chrome to snort in laughter.

Filyn tripped over a rock and hit the floor with a loud splat, causing everyone looking on to wince and stop to see if she was okay. "Oww..." Filyn groaned and shook her head, her eye-patch falling out and revealing a black socket where her eye was.

"What the heck!?" Rom and Ram both yelped at the same time.

"Huh?" Filyn looked at them in confusion and wondered why they were looking at her in horror.

"Your eye-patch fell off." Chrome said as she walked over to her sister and knelt down to get it and wiped it off. "They aren't used to seeing the socket filler that was placed in there."

"Oh." Filyn had an understanding look on her face as Chrome helped her get her eye-patch back on. She knew exactly why they were looking at her like that. After all, she had several small scars around where her eye should have been and without any sort of eyelid around it, it was pretty disturbing.

"Wow!" Peashy ran up to Filyn. "Do you have an eye laser? Do you have x-ray vision so you can see everyone's panties? Can it open portals to the great abyss?"

Filyn looked at Peashy weirdly. "No, it's just a cover for my eye..." Peashy pouted and Filyn wasn't sure what to do about it.

"Well that's because there was that demon we had to deal in there." Chrome answered, causing Peashy and Filyn to look at her with wonder on their faces while Rom and Ram came close, also listening in rapture. "It was a powerful demon that threatened to kill all of us to power up White Void, so, taking a risk, we sealed it into Filyn's eye and that's why she went into a coma for a long time."

"Really?!" All four girls asked at the same time, getting a nod and a small smile from Chrome as she knelt down to look them all in the eye.

"Yes. I'm told that there's still a part of the Demon that lives in Gamworld." The four were looking on in awe and nodded. "If the Demon ever comes into contact with Filyn again, it could release its full power and the world will be doomed."

"EEEK!" The girls screeched and jumped at each other, hugging themselves tightly.

"I...Is it a scary Demon?" Ram asked, getting a nod from Chrome.

"Very scary..." Chrome said softly. "It looks like a beautiful young woman with long, luxurious hair, an adult, curvy body and eyes that could make anyone weak in the knees. But the Demon is vicious and cruel, even worse than White and Green Void were."

"EEEK!" The four screamed in fear as Chrome smiled and stood up.

"So for all of our sakes, we must keep that eye safe and sealed away." Chrome said and turned to walk way, smiling as the girls talked among themselves.

"Uh, boss..?" Linda asked quietly as she followed after Chrome. "Was all of that true? There's no Demon that's worse than White Void, is there?" She turned pale at the look Chrome gave her. The utter seriousness of her facial features made Linda realize Chrome was serious.

"Who do you think took Filyn's eye?" Chrome asked as she turned and left Linda alone, staring at her in stunned silence.

(-)

One week later in the Leanbox courtyard...

"Neptuna!" Peashy smiled as she saw Neptune and ran towards her. In a move that shocked Neptune, the girl didn't headbutt her, but instead jumped at her in an open hug. "I missed you!" She yelled, hugging Neptune tightly.

"Aww! I missed you too, P-Ko." Neptune smiled, glad that Peashy remembered who she was. "I was worried you wouldn't remember me since I've been busy the past few days."

In more ways than one. Chika had been a great help whenever the after-effects of Green Nightmare's breast milk kicked in. 'I can safely say that I'll never have any trouble pleasing a bed partner.' Neptune mentally giggled even as she blushed softly.

"Nah uh!" Peashy shook her head as she cuddled against Neptune. "You saved Pea, you stopped the big meanie and you brought friends for Pea to play with!"

Neptune smiled and looked at Rom, Ram and Filyn as they walked towards Neptune. "Hey girls, I hope it wasn't too much trouble."

They shook their heads.

"Nah uh, Peashy's super fun to play with, big sis Neptune." Rom smiled at her.

"Are you okay now?" Ram asked, a worried look on her face.

Neptune smiled at her. "Mostly okay. The icky stuff is mostly gone now. I need another couple of weeks before I'm really good." They nodded at her. "So, what have I..?" She trailed off as shadows filled the sky and everyone looked up to see several air ships flying into Leanbox. "Well, that's a thing. What's going on?"

"Ah, good." Chrome smiled as she walked out into the courtyard. "I'm glad you're okay, Neptune."

"Well, yeah, but what's going on?"

"We're getting food and stuff for Leanbox." Chrome said as the ships lowered close to the ground. As the doors of one of the airships opened up, Chrome nodded to Artisan as she walked out. Walking over to her, she waved. "That took you awhile."

"Give me a break!" Artisan yelled over the sounds of the whirling blades. "Gathering up all the food and supplies to make a five day trip on short notice isn't easy!" She ignored the look Chrome gave her. "Anyway, there's enough food here to feed everyone for at least three months." She sighed at the look Chrome gave her. "It's the best I could do, okay?"

"That's still long enough for new crops to grow and get harvested." Chrome pointed out. Thankfully most of the temperatures in Gamworld allowed for crop growing all year. Artisan nodded and turned back to the other ships and waved them on in.

"So, Chrome..." Neptune began as she and the other girls walked up to her. "What's going on?"

"Just making sure that Leanbox survives without needing to sacrifice more people." Chrome told her. "Are you okay?"

"For a few hours at least." Neptune said, looking somewhat embarrassed. "I really didn't like what I had to..."

"Do what you do need to do to keep sane." Chrome told her. "If Chika's willing to help you, that's less I have to worry about."

Neptune nodded. "...I wonder where Iffy and the others are."

"They're around, just exploring the place since there's no reason for us to do anything else while you're recovering." Chrome answered, getting a nod from Neptune.

Neptune privately wondered how much longer she would have to stay in Leanbox. She personally wanted to get out of the nation, take Peashy, Rom and Ram and never return if she could help it.

Memories of those tentacles trying to lewd her flooded her mind. 'That reminds me, I need to thank Chika for finding me comfy underwear that fits.' It was frilly in places and plain in color, but at least it was better than going commando and having the air blow across her sensitive private parts.

"So!" Neptune turned and smiled at the girls. "Want to kill monsters?" The girls looked at her in confusion and Neptune winked at them. "A proper CPU kills monsters that bother her citizens after all."

"Are you heading into the maze?" Chrome asked, getting a nod from Neptune. "Alright. The traps should be deactivated by now, so you won't be randomly teleporting around or hitting a death trap by accident. Just be careful, okay?"

"You're not coming with, Chromey?" Filyn asked, causing Chrome to shake her head.

"No. Someone has to make sure everything gets put away in its proper place." She turned to see some people that were at the outpost for years and nodded at them. "Besides, I have to make sure that people know not to wander into dangerous spots."

"Okay." Filyn nodded and waved at Chrome as she followed after Neptune and the other girls.

"...Be careful." Chrome whispered to herself. She knew that Neptune could handle most everything there by herself, but that didn't mean she didn't worry.

To be continued...

* * *

I think we need a break from this place, so there's a couple of interludes incoming, including Vert's backstory.


	25. Interlude: Green

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Interlude: Green

"Hello," a tall, busty and long-haired blonde with blue eyes and wearing a loose, flowing green and white dress smiled at the other person in the room with her. The person was about a head shorter than her with short blonde hair, a much smaller chest while wearing what looked like gym shorts and a tight shirt. "My name is Vert."

"I see," the other woman said as she looked Vert over. "So you're my little sister, huh?"

"Little?" Vert asked and looked at her chest before looking at her sister's chest. "...Well, younger would be a better descriptor I think."

The CPU of Leanbox twitched in annoyance. "Piece of advice, and this is the only freebie you get, don't insult the CPU's boob size just after you were born." Vert jerked in surprise and her sister smirked at her. "I'm the CPU of Leanbox, Emerald Void." She turned and walked off. "Go and see Leanbox if you wish, there are things for me to do."

Vert blinked and wondered if maybe she shouldn't have made that comment before shrugging it off. "Well, I think I will go and see what this place has to offer."

(-)

As she walked around the castle, Vert had to admit, the place was huge! The hallways, corridors and rooms made the building almost as large as a city. "This is amazing!"

"I'll say," a male voice spoke up and Vert jumped and turned to see a man with pleasant features smiling at her. "I'm sorry, I couldn't help but notice you. Who are you?"

"I'm Vert," she bowed to him, "the CPU Candidate of Leanbox."

"Really?" The man's voice showed his obvious interest. "So you're next to become a Void, huh?" Vert nodded, though she had a confused look on her face. "That's neat. How about you come with me? Some friends of mine would love to meet you and have some fun."

"Fun?" Vert asked, a smile appearing on her face. "Will there be games?"

"Oh yes..." The man grinned as he looked her over. "Plenty of fun, intense and amazing games to be had."

"Excellent!" Vert smiled and followed after him, wondering what games she would get to enjoy.

(-)

A few minutes later...

Entering a small room with a table in the center, Vert saw five other men in the room. "So, what shall we play first?" She asked as the door behind her was closed and locked. "Um..." Vert started to sweat slightly as she looked at the men and saw the looks they were giving her. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You are really pretty." The man who led her into the room smiled as he got behind Vert before reaching around her and grabbing her breasts. "My, these are quite big."

"H...Hey!" Vert yelped, her face flushing at the actions. "Stop that you, eek!" She yelled as two guys grabbed her hands and dragged her to the table while the guy who was grabbing her boobs let go and pushed her to the table and then made her bend over on it. "What's going on!?" Vert yelled and tried to get up when manacles came out from the table and slapped on her arms and manacles came out of the legs to grab her legs.

"Truth be told..." The man who led her to the room chuckled softly. "I couldn't help but want you as soon as I saw you. And I know my buddies were the same way. The fact that you're a shitty CPU Candidate only makes me harder."

The next thing Vert knew, her dress bottom was torn off of her and her underwear was quickly removed, leaving her private parts exposed.

"No!" Vert teared up as she looked behind her. "Please, don't! I'll do anything!"

"Anything, huh?" The man chuckled as he dropped his pants and Vert got a good look at him. "Well, if that's the case, give me your virginity!" He yelled and slammed his hard rod into her privates.

"OWWW!" Vert cried out, tears falling from her face. "IT HURTS!" She screamed and thrashed, which only succeeded in making her wiggle her ass and enticing the others on.

She cried as her ass was slapped by the man inside of her. "Quiet down! The rooms are sound-proofed so no one can hear you and no one would care if they did anyway."

Vert looked over her shoulder, tears falling out of her eyes. "My sister's the CPU, she'll..." She stopped as her ass was slapped again while the men laughed at her. "Owwies! What?"

"Emerald Void doesn't care, you'll find out soon enough." The man chuckled as another man got in front of Vert and waved his dick in her face.

"Suck on my dick and don't use your teeth or we bite your nipples off." He smirked. When she closed her mouth, he nodded at the man behind her and he slapped her ass again, causing her to cry out in pain and the man in front of Vert shoved himself inside her open mouth. "Good! You'll soon learn to enjoy this, you slut."

Vert could only moan around the man's dick as she was forced to submit and take not only them, but the others in the room in a gang-rape that lasted for several hours.

(-)

Later in the day...

The CPU of Leanbox raised an eyebrow as she saw Vert, her clothes torn and fluids all over her face, hair, shoulders, breasts and crotch, along with several trails of dried blood, stumbled into her room. "What the hell? Who told you to drip semen and blood over my floor?!"

"S...sister..." Vert stumbled forward and fell down, tears falling from her face. "The men... They..." She hiccuped and sniffled. "They pulled me into a room and pinned me down and... They did stuff to me."

"Yeah, well, if you didn't want to be raped, you should have fought back." The CPU shrugged at Vert, who gawked at her openly. "Plus, with what you were wearing and your tits? You were obviously wanting someone to do that to you." She snorted at Vert's denial. "Did you orgasm?" Vert nodded, shame on her face. "Then you enjoyed it, now shut up, get out of here and go get cleaned up!"

Vert whimpered and slowly got up and staggered out to find a bath.

After she was gone, the CPU smiled at where she had been. "Well, that was fun." She chuckled as she rubbed her hands together. "I hope that the men that will join you take their time enjoying you, Vert."

(-)

In the bath...

Vert sobbed as she scrubbed her body down. "Sis, how could you..?" She trailed off as the door to the bathroom opened up and she stared in horror as several men, all as big as the ones who first raped her, walked into the bath with her.

"Well, well..." The first man smirked. "Didn't know there was a woman in Leanbox that was so stupid to use the men's bath."

Vert trembled and cried out as the men descended on her, pushing her against the walls and having their way with her.

By the time they were done with her, she was thoroughly used and stretched in both of her lower holes. All Vert could do was lay on the ground as cum oozed out of both of her abused lower holes.

"You have a great ass," one of the men commented and gave it a wet smack, "I can't wait to fuck it again tomorrow, you slut."

Vert sobbed as the men all got cleaned up and left her alone in the bathroom.

(-)

Five years later...

Vert, her body naked, looked up with a dead expression on her face as her sister walked into the room.

"You really are such a slut." The CPU shook her head. "To think you can't handle being raped every day for five years straight."

"I... I don't want... To cum anymore..." Vert whimpered as her spread legs quivered while cum poured out of her abused crotch. "Sis... Please..."

"You want more?" Vert's sister grinned and snapped her fingers as more than a dozen men all walked in. "I wonder, are you as stupid as your hair color makes people think you are or did all the orgasms fry your brain?"

Vert trembled as the men got closer to her. "W...What do you mean?"

"Who do you think was ordering your rapes for the past five years?" The CPU laughed and turned to walk away. "Oh, hey boys, see about spreading her nipples and using them as holes to stick your dick into this time."

Vert stared at her sister in horror. "Why? Why?"

The CPU turned to look at her. "...Because your tits are so big, you slut. Only thing you're good for is fucking."

Something in Vert's mind snapped at that as she started to chuckle darkly. "Is that so?" Her body glowed red as a cold sensation filled her chest while her voice got slightly deeper and more menacing. "Why, dear sister..." A black flash of light filled the room and the next thing any of them knew Vert had transformed into her HDD form.

Before Emerald Void could react or even transform, her head was removed from her shoulders as Green Void's scythe slashed through where she was a moment before.

"I'm glad that you told me." Green Void sneered at the dead body of her sister and looked at the men, who were all pale. "Now, now boys..." She licked her lips. "I have to thank all of you... Introducing me to so many delicious kinks... Allow me to repay the favor a hundred fold!"

The day Green Void transformed was also the first of several days where men and women died from exhaustion after Green Void was done with them in bed.

End Interlude Green

* * *

Well, that was dark.

...Can we please get out of here?!

Oh wait, next chapter will be another interlude, back to the Hyperdimension we go!


	26. Interlude: Hyperdimension 2

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Urgh, computer froze and I lost an entire day's worth of writing. That sucked!

...This was way shorter than I intended it to be. ...Whoops. So, I'll post it up right now.

* * *

Interlude: Hyperdimension 2

"Blanc?" Rom looked at her elder sister with worry as the two of them were resting on a bean bag chair and reading a book together. "Are you okay? You sound sad."

"I'm fine." Blanc gave Rom a smile. "What makes you think I'm sad?"

"...Miss Neptune is gone and you don't seem happy." Rom pointed out. She hugged Blanc and cuddled against her. "What happened?"

Blanc sighed softly. "The last time I saw Neptune, I got mad at her."

"Was that because she accidentally dumped a bunch of pudding on your book?" Rom asked as she looked at Blanc curiously.

Blanc twitched, that had been annoying, but that wasn't the reason why she had gotten mad. "No. But I told her to get out and not come back and..." She sighed. "If Neptune dies in that other dimension, the last thing she'll remember of me was me yelling at her like that.

Rom nodded. "...Did she tease you about how her HDD form grows and yours doesn't again?" Blanc twitched and jerked at that. "I like cute and cuddly big sister though."

"Well, to be fair, I was egging her on and bragging about how despite the fact that her nation's so advanced that our nation has more shares all the time and that she wasn't a good goddess." Blanc blinked as Rom gently slapped both of her cheeks and pouted at her.

"...You should apologize to her when she gets back." Rom told Blanc, "you know Miss Neptune will be fine." She smiled at Blanc, "after all, she's the main character."

"...True. Plus if she can transform she can probably go NEXT form, so I shouldn't worry about her too much."

Still, even if what Rom said was true, Blanc couldn't help but worry. As often as Blanc got annoyed by the purple CPU, she still considered Neptune her friend. '...Neptune, I hope you're okay.'

"Blanc?" Rom tilted her head. "Why don't you go to Planeptune tomorrow? Miss Nepgear said she could call Miss Neptune and check up on her."

"...That sounds nice." Blanc smiled softly and the two got back to reading the story.

(-)

In Planeptune...

"Vert!" Nepgear smiled as she saw the Leanbox CPU enter the living area from the balcony. "I'm glad you came over."

Vert smiled and pulled Nepgear into a hug, burying her face into the blonde's chest. "Of course I would come over." She cooed and rubbed Nepgear's back. "I'd do anything for my little sister."

"Aww..." Nepgear giggled and looked up at Vert, a soft blush on her face. "That's nice, but you know I'm not your sister."

"Hmm... Not yet, but things can always change, right?" Vert winked at Nepgear. "Besides, you can have more than one big sister, you know."

"Well, yes, I have two Neptunes as my big sisters and then there's Uzume, who's technically my ancestor..." Nepgear trailed off at Vert's souring face. "Um, sorry?"

Vert released the hug and sighed. "Sometimes I wonder if it's Neptune who's the ditz between you two." She couldn't get mad at Nepgear, the girl was just so honest and pure that it made it impossible to truly get mad at her even when she was being like this.

Nepgear giggled and rubbed the back of her head nervously. "Well, either way, thanks for coming over."

Before Vert could answer there were two people that landed on the balcony and enter. "Nepgear!" Both of them called out.

"Ram! Uni!" Nepgear's eyes lit up happily. "You two came?"

"Of course!" Ram scoffed at her. "Someone has to keep you from getting mopey."

"And Noire gave me a week off to come over." Uni said and looked at Vert. "Ah, well that is..."

"It's fine." Vert smiled at them. "How about we turn this into a slumber party then?" She held up a finger. "Let's just set up some futons out here and we can game all night."

"Super!" Ram's eyes glinted while Uni gave Vert a competitive look and Nepgear giggled nervously.

Watching from a bit away, Histoire sighed and hung her head. 'What's the point of having another CPU come over when she's almost as lazy as Neptune is?'

Still, watching them set up the game system, Histoire shook her head. 'Neptune, come home soon.'

As hard as she was on Neptune, Histoire really did like her and cared deeply about her.

"...Maybe I should see about getting some welcome home pudding ready for her when she gets back?" Histoire said to herself softly and floated off.

End Interlude: Hyperdimension 2

* * *

MUCH better than the last few chapters have been.

Also, sure is nice to see the CPUs we know and love not being twisted evil creatures.

One last chapter in Leanbox and then we're out of that lewd country!


	27. End of Leanbox

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Stay tuned for the end of the chapter, there's a special "What-If" Omake written by one of my beta readers.

* * *

Chapter 22

"So what are we doing, Big Sis Neptune?" Ram asked as they walked through the maze.

"Clearing monsters out." Neptune smiled at her. "First of all, with the traps disabled we shouldn't be teleporting anywhere, secondly, we should get rid of these bad things."

Ram shivered and Neptune gave her a concerned look. "There were big red slimy monsters..." She teared up and looked away. "And they... They ate me and..." A hand was put on her shoulder and she looked to see Rom smiling at her. "Rom?"

"Don't worry," she winked at her younger twin sister, "if we see the bad monsters we'll beat them this time."

"Uh huh." Neptune nodded and smiled at Ram. "You three worked really good together against Green Nightmare when I was poisoned," she looked at Filyn, who was smiling. "So why not learn how to fight together against bad monsters?"

"Will you fight too?" Ram asked her curiously.

"Hmm... I think I'll sit in the back row." Neptune answered her. "You four should learn to fight, but if one of you gets hurt, tag out, okay?"

The younger four all nodded at that.

(-)

Back in the castle...

Chrome looked at the men and women who had approached her. "...What?" She wasn't sure if she had heard what they said right.

"So... What do we do?" One of the men asked her.

"Green Void always made us wait and would choose when we could have sex." A woman told her next. "We..."

Chrome held up a hand and sighed. "You were all raised from birth to please your CPU, huh?" There were plenty of nods to go around. "I was led to believe that it was okay for you to sleep with whomever you wanted." The group slowly shook their heads and Chrome wondered if maybe that rule only applied to certain people. "Neptune gave me the run-down, but why come to me?"

"Because Lady Purple Heart isn't here." One of the men answered her. "We don't know what to do."

"And my balls are starting to hurt." Someone in the back said and Chrome twitched upon hearing that.

"Look, you could..." Chrome looked at them. "I dunno, if you're all having so much problems, why not have sex with each other?" Seeing the utterly baffled looks they had, she stared. "...Wait, do NONE of you..?" They shook their heads. "I'm afraid to ask, but why?"

"Pleasuring anyone but the CPU outside of the breeding rooms is forbidden." Another man said.

Chrome was beginning to think she would need to learn these people's names, because it was starting to get confusing. "Alright, I get it. The rule Green Void made still applies. You can have sex with anyone, but don't pressure them and if they say no, you accept it and move on."

They all looked at each other in confusion.

Chrome sighed and rubbed her forehead. "I was told you could say no to anyone you wished."

"Not to Green Void," one of the women answered her, "anyone who did was put in the torture machine."

Chrome rubbed her forehead. "I don't want to know, do I?"

"It was a machine with dildos that would fuck your ass until you came, then it would put a larger dildo in your ass and fuck you until you came again, then it would continue on and on until your ass ripped apart." One of the men answered her, causing everyone to shudder in horror.

"And Green Void said anyone who tried anything without her permission with anyone would get fed her breast milk after being tied up."

Chrome let out a breath as she processed that. "Lovely. Okay, look, just... You can pleasure each other without needing to be in the breeding rooms." They nodded, eagerness on their faces, "but again, if you ask someone and they say no, just accept it and leave them alone."

"...Can we do anything we want then?"

"So long as no one gets hurt." Chrome admitted before something occurred to her. "Oh, and don't you ask anyone who's really young."

"What if they ask us?" One of the men asked her.

"...No sex with anyone who hasn't hit puberty yet." Chrome answered him instantly. "That means don't you dare have sex with the CPU Candidates of Leanbox or Lowee or my younger sister Filyn, do you understand?"

They nodded and started to disperse and Chrome just sighed heavily. "...Yes?" She asked the three men that were left. "Can I help you?"

"...Want to have a gangbang?"

Chrome blushed as she heard the question. "I'm... Flattered that you'd want someone as old as I am, but I don't really deserve that honor." Seeing the disappointed looks, she sighed. "Listen, I have... A lot of emotional baggage. Maybe when my trip is done, I'll return. If you still want one then, fine."

Hearing them cheer only made her blush more. 'Why would they want one with me? I'm pretty sure I'd be a lousy lover.' Still, it was kind of nice to have people wanting her like that.

(-)

An hour later...

Warechu was wandering around an open area in the castle, looking a bit lost. "This place is huge!" What made it worse, in his opinion, was how easy it was to go from the courtyard to the food storage area and then finding another door that led to a residential area in the castle.

It was a little weird seeing so many multi-room apartments that were actually reasonably furnished with dressers, beds, a private bathroom, sinks and more in one building. And while Warechu had seen those in Lowee, he was still used to the small apartment buildings at the outpost that had doors to the outside and not into a hallway.

Warechu had to admit, the fact that this place had electrical lights on the walls and large screen televisions that played information, entertainment and more across the walls was pretty neat, plus it was more advanced than Lowee by a wide margin.

"How big is this place?"

"It depends on your definition of big." A female voice spoke up and Warechu turned to see a woman with long blue hair, pink eyes, who was wearing a tight t-shirt that showed off her modest bust and hot pants on her waist. "Then again, I grew up my whole life here, I'm sure that the others who are helping us with food haven't seen places this big before either."

"Yeah," Warechu nodded at her, "so who are you?"

"Me?" She smiled at him. "My name is 5pb." Warechu nodded at her. "So you came with the CPU that stopped Green Void?" Warechu nodded and she sighed softly, looking a little sad.

"What's wrong, chu?" Warechu asked her. "Are you sad the CPU is gone?" The citizens of Lowee had practically thrown a party after White Void was dead and it was only because Purple Heart had been the reason that White Void was dead that people had been willing to give Rom and Ram a chance to prove that they weren't monsters.

Personally Warechu had come to like the twin girls. They were really cute, like Compa and IF were, and the fact that they weren't anything like a Void was a big plus in his book. Plus after everything that those two had gone through with White Void as their elder sister made it impossible for him to hate them. They had been just as victimized by White Void as any of them had been after all.

"A little." 5pb. answered him. "Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that it's a good thing she's gone, but..." She sighed heavily. "Green Void was cruel with her punishments and other things, but she did keep us safe from the monsters in the maze."

"But she was sacrificing people by making them give birth to tentacle monsters and then becoming part of them." Warechu pointed out, getting a nod from 5pb., who was trembling. "So why are..?"

"...It's all I know." She admitted to him. "I knew from the day I was born that my life was to please Green Void. When I would get older, I was to have children until I couldn't and then I was to basically become part of the tentacles so that my children and could have food."

Warechu grimaced as he heard that. "Really? That sounds really bad, chu." 5pb. looked down and he sighed. "You know, if you were raised to please your CPU, you should talk to Lady Purple Heart, chu." The girl looked at him in confusion. "She's way different than what you think a CPU is like. I was scared of all CPUs and hated them until I met her, chu. Maybe she can help you and the others."

5pb. smiled at that. "Do you think... If I do a good job she'll reward me?" Warechu nodded and she squealed in delight and hugged him tightly. "Thank you, Mister Mouse!"

"Eh heh heh..." Warechu's face turned red, but he wasn't complaining. "I have to admit, all the people in Leanbox look really nice."

5pb. nodded and let go of the hug. "Green Void wanted all of us to look really good and apparently eating tentacle monster parts helps us grow to look really pretty."

"And now I'm back to being disturbed." Warechu muttered softly. He actually wanted to help the people of Leanbox, this was just... Disgusting, but at the same time, he couldn't blame them. "Um, I hope it's not too much to ask, but about your life... It sound really kind of crummy."

5pb. sighed and slumped. "Maybe, but it's all I know. I'm kind of lucky that Lady Purple Heart stopped Green Void..." She giggled nervously and rubbed the back of her head. "In five years I would have had to go down to the breeding rooms myself."

Warechu sighed. "This is really sad, Chu."

"Well, um..." 5pb. looked at Warechu. "Oh! Right! You were really close to that one girl who has those hooks, and that one girl with the weird skin right?"

"Compa?" Warechu's eyes started to sparkle. "Yeah, I'm close to Compa. And that other girl with the weird skin is IF, chu..."

"So are you and Compa lovers or something?" 5pb. asked, a curious expression on her face. Warechu blushed but shook his head. "You're not? But you're so close!"

"I wish I was, but we're not the same species, chu..." Tears welled up in his eyes. "Plus Compa lost her arms taking care of some hurt people. And I love her, but I know that she's suffered a lot and I don't want to bother her with that."

"...What about the other girl?"

Warechu shook his head. "Nah uh, IF's close to Linda. I don't think they're anything more than really close friends, but IF gets naked rubdowns from Linda all the time because of her skin."

"How nice." 5pb. smiled at that. "To have a friend so close that you'll let them touch you when you're naked." She held her hand out, "mister mouse, will you walk with me? I'm getting a bit hungry and it's close to supper time."

"More tentacles?" Warechu asked, getting a nod from 5pb., "I hope you don't mind if I don't eat them."

"It's okay, I know that it's a bit weird. I didn't like them when I was a little girl either, but it was either eat them or starve to death." She smiled at him as he took her hand and the two walked off together.

(-)

Sometime later...

Linda was sitting in the courtyard with Gust, the two of them waiting to see if Neptune and the others would return. "...What do you think about this place, Gust?"

"Gust has had three women ask her if Gust wanted to do lewd things." Gust grumbled in some annoyance. "Gust isn't interested in girls like that, but the boys here would break Gust in half if Gust tried to do lewd things with them."

"Huh," Linda looked at the bunny girl, "would have thought you weren't into boys."

Gust snorted at Linda and pointed at her ears. "Gust has these bunny ears, remember? Bunny girls like boys, Gust is forever short though and can't have children because of it."

Linda winced, remembering that Gust was older than she was but was forever trapped in the body of a girl who was like seven or eight years old because of some hormone imbalance or something. "Sorry, didn't mean to make you remember it."

Gust sighed and shook her head. "Gust knows it's not your fault that Gust can't have a family. Most Gust can do is help raise other girls so they grow up right."

"You mean like the CPU Candidates?" Linda asked, getting a nod from Gust. "...What's your thoughts on them?"

"...Gust was wrong about them." She admitted to Linda. "Neptune was right. They need love and guidance, not fear and distrust. Gust wants to help Rom, Ram and Peashy too."

Linda smiled at her. "You and me both."

Gust nodded at that. "Gust wonders... If Neptune beats all the Voids, what will happen to the world?" She looked around and saw the people mulling about, some getting help from the support people from Lowee, others just having fun playing games involving throwing a ball around or something and there were little kids running around, playing and laughing. "Gust thinks things are a bit better here than Lowee."

"I dunno," Linda muttered, remembering what she had heard from some of the natives of Leanbox. "They were raised to do lewd things to Green Void, not get any scars or anything, breed the next generation of children and then become food."

"...Now Gust feels ill."

"You and..." Linda trailed off as she saw some people coming out of the maze. "Looks like they're back." She and Gust both got up and walked over to where Neptune and the others were as they came out of the maze. "Hey what... happened?" Linda gawked as she saw them covered in green and red goop while their hair was standing on end and crackling.

"We chased some big, fat red dogoos through the maze and ran into tentacle walls." Neptune had a tight smile on her face. "Apparently Rom and Filyn had a combo attack they didn't tell me about that involves an exploding electrical tornado. On the plus side, those tentacle monsters are dead now."

The two guilty members of the party just giggled nervously.

Linda snorted in amusement. "Well, how about you go get cleaned up then?"

"Great!" Neptune smiled at her. "When I'm done here I think I'll go to bed." The others looked at her and she blushed pretty heavily. "Um... I... Didn't really get much sleep when Chika was helping me out."

Linda shook her head as the group walked off to get cleaned up.

To be continued...

* * *

Oh hey, it's 5pb., good to see you... And now I'm disturbed as well. WILL YOU GUYS STOP DISTURBING ME?! I'M THE ONE WRITING THIS!

Anyway, we're out of Leanbox next chapter (finally!)

And here's the What-If Omake my beta reader wrote.

* * *

What if the Fearicite had never formed?

Speeding up toward Sharicite chamber, CPU of Lowee Red Heart tried her best to calm herself down and finally try to gather up her thoughts. She know full well that this day would come eventually. No matter how much effort she poured into governing over Lowee all of these years, the appearance of a CPU candidate was as unavoidable as the rain, wind or voyage to toilet after another good party at the bar.

Thinking about the bar had Red Heart wondering if maybe she could take a small detour and drink in a few liters of Lowee prized root beer?

Oh heck, what she thinking?! She definitely couldn't appear before her newborn sister drunk out of her wits!

When the white haired CPU entered the sacred room, her sister was already born and carefully looking around, trying to get as much information about her birthplace as she could. The small, brown haired girl in a sundress quickly turned around to see the person who entered the room and quickly flashed an adorably small smile, somehow realizing, without the need for words, that this woman in front of her was someone who would be the closest to her in entire world.

Red Heart, on other hand, was trying her best not to smile… Not because she disliked this girl, but because she knew full well that she would break out into the biggest and goofiest smile she could muster. But what else she could do? The small little angel in front of her was THE most adorable thing she had ever seen in her entire life.

'Um, hello. I'm Blanc." The newly born future Goddess introduced herself, looking at Red Heart with curiosity and joy, and unintentionally making it almost impossible for Red Heart to not get weak in the knees and pull the girl into the biggest, tightest hug imaginable.

"Hi there, Blanc." Answered the overjoyed Goddess, who quickly regained her senses and lowered herself to her knees while outstretching both of her arms. "I'm Red Heart, CPU of Lowee and your older sister."

Blanc obviously had the same idea as Red and moved forward to give her older sister a hug. Returning the embrace and feeling the warmth of her sister's body, Red could feel herself whatever willpower she had left as she felt a huge goofy smile cover her face.

At least she didn't have to worry about being embarrassed...

Blanc had the same goofy grin on her face.

* * *

...That damn Fearicite.


	28. Leavings and Landings

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

And we're out of Leanbox finally!

* * *

Chapter 23

Purple Heart stood in front of the cameras of Leanbox and smiled at them as she stood in the courtyard. While there were a few hundred people in the courtyard, most everyone would be watching on the large screens that were scattered throughout Leanbox's interior. "People of Leanbox, as well as those who came from Lowee," she began as the camera started to broadcast her announcement, "I am CPU Purple Heart and I thank you for your hospitality for the past three months." Putting off going to the other nations hadn't been part of the plan, but after seeing how utterly and completely messed up Leanbox had been, she felt like she didn't have a choice in the matter. "While there is still a lot to do to help you out, I must announce that I plan on leaving today."

She could feel the confusion in the crowd and there was obviously other people watching who were confused.

"There are other nations in the world who still need help as they are ruled by Voids." Purple Heart continued, "I do not know if they are as bad as Green Void or if they are worse, but part of my mission is to help the CPU Candidates of all of the nations as well as their people." She turned and smiled at Peashy, who was in a striped bee outfit, before turning back to the cameras, "to that end, I will be taking CPU Candidate Peashy with me to help her learn to be a proper CPU, much like how I am helping CPU Candidate Rom and CPU Candidate Ram. I hope that I can guide your CPU Candidate to become a proper CPU."

She could feel the gratitude from the crowd and mentally sighed in relief. Personally she felt she wasn't good enough to teach Rom, Ram or Peashy how to be good CPUs. She knew that Nepgear was going to be a good CPU, but not because of her elder sister, but rather, in spite of her. 'Stop it, Neptune, criticize yourself later, you need to look strong here.' After waiting a moment, she continued, "I merely ask that you all put faith and trust in me moving forward. Thank you."

As the cameras shut off and Purple Heart walked off the stage, waving at everyone, she privately wondered just what it was like in the other nations.

(-)

Three minutes later...

"Nice speech." Chrome said to Neptune. "...You okay?" Neptune didn't seem as perky or cheerful like she usually was.

Neptune gave her a smile and nodded. "Just thinking of stuff. I need pudding and video games!" She giggled at Chrome's look of annoyance. "Is everything loaded?"

"Yes, including several pairs of fresh underwear for everyone." Chrome smirked as Neptune turned scarlet. "You're lucky that Chika had some pairs for you."

"...But they're almost as lewd as black panties." Neptune weakly protested, knowing that she couldn't really complain about that. 'After all, I was doing all sorts of lewd things with Chika and...'

"Hey!" Neptune was taken out of her thoughts as she heard Chika running towards her, the green-haired girl's chest was bouncing in very distracting ways and Neptune felt her face flushing as she knew exactly what Chika looked like without clothes on. "Lady Neptune! I have something to give you!" Chika said as she ran closer.

Neptune and Chrome both blinked as Chika stopped right in front of Neptune. "Oh?" Chrome asked, curious but she had an inkling of an idea in her head. "What did you want to give her?"

The next thing Neptune knew, Chika's hands were on the CPU's butt and their lips were pressed against each other. Chrome was almost amused by how Neptune seemed to melt into the kiss, even returning it. 'Well, I guess when you're intimate with someone for almost a month straight, it's hard not to be like this.'

"Wow!" Rom and Ram said at the same time as they poked their head out of the door of the ship, staring at Neptune and Chika. "That's hot!" They both exclaimed at the same time, causing Neptune to break the kiss and blush hard while Chika let go.

"That was for good luck." Chika winked at Neptune and looked at Rom and Ram. "Take care of Lady Neptune and Lady Peashy, okay?" They nodded at her. "I'd love to come with, but I can't do anything useful on the ship."

"Personally, I'd rather you stay here anyway," Chrome answered her and looked at the other people in the courtyard that had come to see them off, "I'm sure that you'll do fine. Just try to not have the place fall apart."

Chika nodded as Neptune and Chrome got on the ship. She waved them off as the door closed and the ship took off into the air. "Good luck, Lady Neptune!"

(-)

"Big sis Neptune?" Rom spoke up, "are you and big sis Chika going to..."

Neptune shook her head, her face red. "Uhm... No, I don't..." She put her hands on her cheeks. "I mean, I don't live here normally... I mean..."

"Neptune has a home she has to go back to." Chrome answered for Neptune, getting a nod from the CPU, "as amusing as it is for her to have someone who will do things like that, she has to return home sooner or later."

"Yeah! That!" Neptune pointed out and sighed at the look Rom gave her. "Hey..." She walked up to Rom and hugged her. "Don't be sad, I'm trying to help you." She sighed when Rom sniffled and hugged her tightly. "Rom..."

"Why?" Rom sobbed. "Why can't you stay here? I want you to stay here."

Chrome gave her a sad look and walked off as Neptune tried to help Rom calm down. She saw Ram sitting on some steps nearby and nodded to her, watching as she ran to where Rom was, followed by Peashy, who had been behind Ram and they all hugged Neptune tightly. "It really is unfair." She sighed softly. "I wish that you could stay too," Chrome walked off, muttering softly, "you're what this world needs more than anything."

(-)

Hours later...

Neptune sank into her bed and closed her eyes, trying to fight off the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes. Rom, Ram and Peashy had eventually walked off and went to their own rooms, leaving Neptune alone. "I..." She sniffled and rolled over to bury her face into her pillow. "I'm not the person you girls need."

She knew she would screw up, after all, she did nothing but screw up with her own sister. 'Dang it, I'm so mopey.' Neptune reached into her parka hoodie pocket and found her phone before wiping her eyes and making a call.

_"Hello?"_

"Hey! It's mini-Noire." Neptune tried to smile as she heard Uni's voice.

_"Ack! It's Neptune!"_

Neptune pouted at hearing that. "Come on! Do you dislike me that much?"

_"Well you just run off on any sort of adventure you want to, leaving Nepgear behind and alone."_

Neptune winced, that much was true. "Ah... How is Nep Jr.?"

_"Oh, NOW you care? I bet you only care because there's no one to make you pudding."_

"...Why are you..?"

_"Nepgear woke me up last night with her crying because you were gone!" _Uni yelled at Neptune, who winced on the phone._ "Maybe you should just stay there?"_

"...Maybe."

_"What the goodness?!"_ Nepgear's voice was heard. _"Uni?! Why are you talking to Neptune like that?!"_

_"She needs to hear it! She runs off again and..."_

_"But it's my fault!"_ Nepgear interrupted and there was a sound of struggling. _"Neptune! Don't listen to Uni, she's just been in a bad mood today."_

"It's okay," Neptune said softly, "I kind of deserve it."

_"Dang it! Uni! Bad! Go sit in the corner!"_ There was a groaning sound and some shuffling off. _"Listen, Neptune, Uni just has been in a bad mood because I had a bad dream and she didn't get enough sleep. When you get back, I'll have her apologize, okay?"_

"...Nepgear..." Neptune began, sniffling softly, "I really miss you."

_"...Neptune, are you okay?"_

"Nepgear, I..." Neptune had tears falling out of her eyes at this point, "it hurts... I'm seeing people that look like our friends and... Some of them are bad guys and..."

_"Neptune, what's going..."_

There was a beeping sound and Neptune sighed as the call dropped. "...I miss you so much, Nep Jr., you and Histy."

Neptune wondered if maybe Gamworld was affecting her more than she thought, she normally wasn't this mopey and bummed out. 'Well, other than when I found out P-Ko was Yellow Heart and we had been fighting her for years.'

Her time in the Ultradimension had been easy by comparison. She had her friends, three little girls, Histiore and Plutia there to help her feel good about her time and not think about things. "Heh, Plutie wouldn't like this world either." She didn't know what her friend would do, but she knew that even though Plutia could be a bully, she hated seeing other people being bullied.

Closing her eyes, she drifted off to a dreamless sleep, but the tears didn't stop flowing.

(-)

Filyn sat in the cockpit with Gust and Linda. "So where are we heading next?"

"Lastation," Linda answered her as she pulled up some maps on the screen, "it'll take us about six or seven days to get there from Leanbox."

"If we're heading North, why don't we head to that last nation?" Filyn asked them in confusion.

"Last nation is very far away, would take two weeks from Lastation to get there." Gust answered her.

"Plus I'm not the one who made the plans, that would be your sister and Neptune." Linda answered her and got up. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to check on IF."

"Not Compa?" Gust asked and Linda turned to her.

"The rat's looking after her." Linda answered and left the cockpit.

Gust hoped that things were okay.

(-)

In Compa's room...

"Mister Mouse..." Compa looked at Warechu, who looked up from the book he was reading through, "can you help me? My back itches."

"Sure." Warechu smiled and pushed up her shirt and started scratching her bare back, getting a moan of pleasure from Compa. After a minute, he stopped scratching her back. "Is that better?"

"Huh?" Compa blinked, before nodding. "Yeah, thank you, Mister Mouse." She sighed as he lowered her shirt. "Mister Mouse... Why do you like me?" She asked him and he blushed hard. "I know that we're not the same species and I know that you have... um... Feelings for me," she blushed softly as she tapped her metal hooks together, "so why? Wouldn't it be better to go after someone of your species?"

Warechu bit his lower lip and sighed. "I... I can't help it, chu... You're so pretty and kind and even though the CPU did such a bad thing to you, you never hated her."

Compa sighed softly. She couldn't bring herself to hate the CPUs of the world. She had been told about how White Void had been treated as a CPU Candidate and after hearing about how a CPU Candidate had to feel nothing but bad feelings to be able to become a Void, it only made her pity them. "Because White Void was a victim too. I don't like what Miss Void did as a CPU, but she was suffering too."

"See? There you go again!" Warechu pointed out. "I... I love you, chu! You're so kind and pretty and you smell so nice!"

Compa blushed hard at hearing that. "Mister Mouse..." Even if he was a dirty mouse, it was still really nice to hear those words spoken to her. "I'm sorry, but..."

"I know," Warechu sighed softly, "we're not the same species and you don't really feel that way about me." He looked down and slumped, "I'm sorry."

"So am I." Compa said before scooting close to him and wrapping her arm around him, causing him to stiffen up. "If you were a human, I'd gladly be your girlfriend."

Warechu blushed hard and buried his face on her side. "Thank you."

Compa smiled at him.

(-)

Two days later...

"THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" IF screamed as the ship thrashed from side to side. Things were going smooth, she had just gotten dressed after being rubbed down by Linda an hour ago, Neptune was with Rom, Ram and Peashy. Gust was near them and IF winced when she saw Gust fall over and Ram stumble backwards, only to get her butt on Gust's face. "Yeesh, poor Gust."

"Iffy!" Compa called out as she and Warechu came around a corner. "What's going on?"

"I don't, waaagh!" IF yelled as the ship lurched and she flew, face first, into Compa's boobs, sending them both crashing into the far wall. "DAMMIT, LINDA! STOP THE RIDE! I WANT TO GET OFF!" IF yelled as she pushed herself up from Compa to yell and hope that someone could hear her.

"Um, Iffy..." Compa spoke up and IF looked, her eyes wide as she realized that one, her hands were on Compa's boobs and two, she was giving them a good squeeze.

"Hey! Off! Those boobs are mine to fondle!" Warechu glared at IF, much to Compa's embarrassment

"Fine!" IF pulled her hands off of Compa's chest. "You know I didn't mean..."

"Listen up, everyone!" Linda's voice was heard over the speaker, "a sudden storm formed around us and lightning blasted the ship. We're down an engine and our navigation is out. I'm making an emergency landing."

"At least the ship is designed for that." IF muttered as the ship descended to the water below.

"Unusual," Chrome muttered as she and Filyn came out of their room, "the storm just formed out of nowhere?" Suddenly Chrome's eyes widened and she ran for the cockpit. "No way... It can't be..."

Everyone looked at each other in confusion.

(-)

In the cockpit...

Chrome stared, her face pale as she saw where the ship was heading. "It... Can't be..." She stared in shock. Even though the storm was making it hard to see, even though the land looked twisted and warped...

Chrome knew that land very well...

"Eden..." She whispered as the ship descended towards the land mass.

Chrome said nothing as she just stared out the window. A cold feeling of dread, anger and a bit of fear filled her insides. "I guess running away from my past ends now, huh?"

After all, twisted or not... She had finally come home.

To be continued...

* * *

And they say you can't go home. Shows what they know, HA!

And I'll get back to Uni in a future chapter, promise!


	29. Eden

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 24

"BRACE FOR IMPACT!" Linda yelled over the speakers and a few moments later the ship came to a rough stop, sending everyone flying forward in the direction that the ship had been moving.

"Oooph!" IF winced and groaned as her back hit the wall and something hit her in the front. Opening her eyes, she blushed softly as she saw Compa mere inches from her face. "Ah heh heh..."

"Chuuu..."

IF blinked and looked down with a shocked expression to see Warechu with a pleased expression on his face as was mashed between hers and Compa's boobs. "What the hell?!"

"Heh heh heh..." Warechu grinned at IF. "Not as big as Compa's, but still pleasant."

IF twitched in annoyance. "Get off of my boobs."

"Sorry, Iffy." Compa pushed herself back and Warechu got out of the boob sandwich and away from IF before she hit him. "That was my fault."

"Not like any of us could have prepared for that sudden stop that quickly." IF grumbled as she got up and looked at the area down below. "Are you all okay down there?!"

Neptune, who was buried under Rom, Ram, Peashy and Gust, the last one was sitting on her face, raised a thumb up at her. "MMMPHMMPH!"

"Oh, so this is what it's like when Gust lands on someone else's face for once." Gust commented as she got off of Neptune.

"Urgh," Filyn, who had jumped to the floor when the Linda had yelled out, slowly pushed herself up. "What happened?"

"We crashed," IF commented as everyone got up. "Come on, let's go see what's going on." Before anyone could say or do anything, Linda and Chrome came out of the cockpit and to the main areas. "Or we could wait."

"Okay, so, good news! We're not being blasted by the storm anymore." Linda said before sighing. "Bad news, I need to repair the engines and I'll need help. Rat! Bunny! You two are with me."

"Of course," Warechu sighed, knowing he could get into places that others couldn't.

"Gust is only good for this anyway," the bunny girl shrugged, knowing it was going to happen.

"And worse news, we missed the ocean," Chrome told them, "and landed in a swamp."

"HUH?!" The CPU Candidates all yelled and Neptune's eyes suddenly started to sparkle for some reason.

"Oh! I bet we landed in Dagobah!" Neptune grinned at that. "Quick! Find the ghosts of ancient Force Masters and a muppet that talks like "find the truth we must" or something!" She sighed at the looks of confusion everyone gave her. "You need to watch more movies."

Chrome sighed softly and shook her head. "Not Dagobah or whatever, but we landed in a swamp."

"Oh?" Neptune suddenly turned and ran for the door, opening it up and looking outside and seeing that, yes, they were in a swamp and yes, they were sunk into the bog. "Well, this stinks. Someone call Triple G!"

"Triple G?" Peashy asked. "What's that, Neptuna?"

"Goddess Guidance Gunning." Neptune answered her. "It's a tow service that pulls airships and cars out of spots when they get stuck." She giggled and rubbed the back of her head when Peashy gave her a confused look. "I, uh... Crashed a bumper car into a tree when I tried to drive once."

"...HOW?!" Chrome, IF and Linda all asked at the same time.

"Very carefully?" Neptune giggled, remembering that incident. "I took my daughters to the fair and was playing bumper car with my friend Plutie and my little sister while they watched and I ended up crashed in the tree." Neptune pouted at the looks they were giving her. "I dunno how it happened, just suddenly I went out of control, hit Plutie's bumper car and went flying into a tree."

"...You have kids?" Gust asked and tilted her head. "Gust would have not guessed."

Neptune patted her stomach and smiled at her. "That's right, I popped out three girls at the same time. It sure wasn't easy."

"I bet not." Chrome muttered, "though she is right, I never would have expected you to have given birth."

"Oh, that's because my three girls were orphans and I raised them." Neptune laughed as Gust, Chrome, IF and Linda all face-faulted. "Anyway, I think..." Neptune turned around to look out at the murk. "There's some rocks that lead to what looks like some solid ground."

"I'd rather Neptune and I be the only ones who go." Chrome said, "however, I feel like all of you," she looked at the CPU Candidates as she spoke, "will only get in the way if you stay here."

"I'm not going into that," IF shook her head, "if my skin breaks, I'll get infected badly."

"I'll stay here too." Compa waved, "good luck everyone."

(-)

The group had taken nearly twenty minutes, with Rom, Ram, Peashy and Filyn each taking a tumble into the swamp, before they got to the solid pathway. Thankfully the murk wasn't that deep, but it was hard to get out of without help and all four of the young girls were covered in mud from the waist down.

"And this is why I wanted to come with just Neptune." Chrome said as she looked down the pathway. '...It's so different.' Chrome couldn't believe that her nation had become so desolate and bleak. The gray skies, the swamp, murk, dead trees, the feeling and smell of death all around them. It was too much.

Phantom images of beautiful buildings, paved streets, trees, forests and people walking down the path filled her mind as they superimposed themselves over the desolate and bleak scenery. '...My people...' She felt her legs give out as she fell to her knees and hung her head. "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have run..."

"Chromey?" Filyn asked, worry in her face and voice as she saw her sister looking like that. "What's wrong?"

"Yeah, I'm concerned too." Neptune asked as she stepped forward and put a hand on Chrome's shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"I..." Chrome shuddered and looked up as she saw children running and playing, throwing balls at each other while some walked down the street on a hand-held. "...I can't believe this place would look so bad."

"Huh?" Filyn looked around and saw dead trees, spikes sticking out of the mud and buildings that looked decayed and rotted in the distance. "Chromey, where are we?"

"...Eden," Chrome said as she stood up, "my home." She had a miserable look on her face as she looked down the path and saw a tall, large building in the distance with rounded tops. "...I have to know." She started walking followed by everyone else.

"So..." Neptune said as she put her hands behind her head. "This is Eden?"

"It was a paradise at one point," Chrome answered her as she ignored the frogs and in the distance croaking and slapped a random mosquito that tried to bite her. "Full of life, full of energy, plenty of monsters, people living happily and it was a good time. There were plenty of random storms though." She sighed as she pushed a tree branch out of the way and it snapped as the rotted wood gave way. "But then, everything changed..."

"When the Fire Nation attacked?" Neptune interrupted, wincing at Chrome's look. "Sorry, sorry, I'll be quiet now."

Chrome said nothing and continued to walk on.

"Big sister Neptune..." Rom began, "that was a bad joke."

"...Yeah," Neptune sighed and slumped, "I screwed up." Rom nodded and the group ran to catch up to Chrome.

Above them several dark birds let out caws and flew off.

(-)

It was an hour later as the group entered a circle that was surrounded by worn down buildings that were missing glass, doors and parts of the walls when they finally came to a stop.

"Hey, Chrome..." Neptune began as she tried to ignore the creepy factor of the place. The area they were in almost felt like a prairie town that had sprung up around a railroad but basically closed down when the railroad didn't materialize in that particular spot. "I wanted to say, um, sorry." Chrome gave her a confused look. "About that bad joke."

Chrome let out a sigh and shook her head. "No, don't worry about it. It just reminded me that I have to get going is all."

"Um," Ram looked around nervously, jumping when she heard something in one of the buildings fall to the ground with a loud and hollow crash. "This place is scary..."

"It used to be a place of business." Chrome said softly and pointed to what looked like a domed barn; the broken and exposed metal edges of the metal panels long since stained with rust from the many rains since. "That was a movie theater." She pointed to a place that had smashed in window and broken front wall. "That was an out-door ice-cream parlor." She pointed at another building down the broken street that was barely standing. "That was a school."

"Was there an outdoor pool?" Neptune asked, getting the feel that this place was more of a small town that had lots of good memories for lots of people but had stopped growing in size and opportunities for younger people dried up as a result and they moved, causing the town to eventually stagnate and decline.

Chrome smirked. "Yeah," she pointed off in the distance. "Large enough that over ten thousand people could use it comfortably and still have room for others." She sighed and closed her eyes, the sound of laughter from children and the dull roar of a large crowd filled her ears and when she opened them up she could see buildings that were in pristine condition, people going about their day. She could even see teenagers sneaking into dark alleyways to do lewd things with each other.

Shaking her head, she sighed when the images slowly disappeared, again replaced with a bleak look. "Dammit."

"Um, Chromey?" Filyn began, "are you okay?"

Chrome sighed and shook her head. "No... No I'm not." She looked up at the largest building, one that was mostly still intact, other than the broken clock at the top and the darkened colors and bit her thumb. "...Are you still..." She stopped as a noise filled the air. "What is that?"

"What's what?" Rom asked and looked around in confusion. "Wait, I hear something too."

"It sounds like someone giggling." Filyn pointed out.

"If I had to guess how this will work, the person who's giggling will be walking down from the big building right about..." Neptune looked at an invisible watch on her wrist and looked up. "Now."

A few moments later, a short girl with red eyes, long, light purple hair that was braided to the side and over her left shoulder, walked towards the group, giggling the whole time. She was wearing slip-on shoes, leggings that went up under a long-sleeved light purple dress with white and blue trim. In the center of her skirt was a capital "P" with the bottom looking like an "L", as if someone had combined the two English letters together in one letter.

Neptune stared, her pupils shrinking and her breathing became shallow. "It... It can't be..." She knew who it was, but her mind, her body, her very heart were trying to rebel against it. 'Why? Why are you here?' She thought to herself as her eyes teared up.

The girl stopped a few feet away from them and smiled happily at them. "Hello." She said, her words slightly dragged out. "It's been sooooo long since I had guests of any sort."

"Plutie..." Neptune whispered, trembling as a rush of fear entered her.

She could tell, after dealing with Vert and Blanc...

That Plutia was the Void of Eden.

To be continued...

* * *

RED ALERT! RED ALERT! RUN! RUN!


	30. Iris Void

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 25

Plutia stopped a few feet from the others, a pleasant smile on her face. "Welcome to Eden, my name is Plutia." She gave them all a short bow. "It's been just sooooo long since I've had anyone around here."

"You're the only person we've seen." Chrome said and narrowed her eyes at Plutia. "...Is it too much to hope that you're not the CPU of Eden?"

"CPU?" Plutia had a confused look on her face as she put her finger on her lips. "Oooooh! Right! Yep yep! I'm CPU Iris Void." She clapped her hands together and hopped around a little bit. "I'm sooo glad that people know who I am."

"Iris..." Ram began as she backed up and fell on her butt, her body trembling in fear.

"Void?" Rom's hands started to crackle. "You're just another monster!"

"Monster?" Plutia pouted at them. "That's so mean! We just met and you're acting like I kicked your puppy, broke your toys and then pooped in your food."

"...Graphic." Neptune muttered and shuddered at the mental images. "Icky! Plutie! No talking about doing that stuff!"

"Plutie?" Plutia blinked and smiled at Neptune. "I like that name. It's cute! What's your name?"

"Me? My name's Neptune."

Plutia jumped and clapped her hands together. "Yay! Imma call you Neppy then." She stopped after a moment and sighed, hanging her head. "I haven't had anyone around in sooo long that I was getting bored!" Plutia pouted and played with her braid.

"You..." Neptune began, unsure what to think about this Plutia. 'So far she's acting like the Plutie I know,' which, considering that she was a Void, was terrifying when one considered Iris Heart. "You wouldn't happen to have a little sister, would you?"

Plutia blinked and tilted her head in confusion. "Little sister..?" She asked, a bit of a vacant look on her face. "Oh! Right! I have a little sister!" Her eyes lit up and a wide smile crossed her face. "Do you want to meet her?" She spun around and started to run back in the direction she came from. "Come on! Come on!"

Chrome trembled as she walked after Plutia. "Iris Void?" She couldn't help but wonder if this was the CPU that had taken Filyn's eye or if this was just the current CPU of Eden.

"Chromey?" Filyn asked her, concern on her face. "What's wrong?"

"...I don't know." Chrome admitted as they followed after her. 'Why does my everything tell me to kill her?' She thought to herself before mentally groaning. 'And why do I feel like that's something Neptune would say?'

(-)

It took the group a mere three minutes to get close to the large building where they saw Plutia standing close to the doors.

"So, um..." Neptune really wanted to get out of the area, the mere thought of Iris Void was making her almost want to wet her panties in fear. "Plutie... Where's...yo...ur..?" Her eyes widened as Plutia pointed up and she looked up slowly, her face becoming more and more pale as she saw someone pinned to the wall.

But the person not only was naked, but they had no hair on their head...

...Nor did they have eyes...

...Or limbs...

...And Neptune couldn't even see skin and then there were the organs dangling from the person's body.

Ram and Filyn both took one look and instantly threw up while Rom turned green and Peashy fell on her butt in fear.

"See?" Plutia smiled at them, a disturbing gleam entering her eyes at that moment. "I have a little sister..." She pouted, "but she kept screaming and crying when I was doing my CPU stuff, so I thought," her pout turned into a broad grin on her face, "that she was just upset that she wasn't part of the fun! So I started by shoving a nail under each of her toe nails! The way she screamed was wonderful." Plutia giggled and put her fingers on her cheeks as a look of pure delight came to her face. "And I couldn't stop, but she wouldn't stop screaming and crying... I then removed her fingernails from the root, but her screaming got worse... Sooooo..." Plutia pulled out a chainsaw from somewhere and had everyone jump back in fright. "I thought I'd teach her what real pain is! And I started by cutting her hands off, but then I cut her legs off, and then I used this to cut into her organs, but I was making a mess," Plutia's voice was filled with some regret, "so I put the saw away and," she put down the chainsaw and pulled out some scalpels and when she started speaking again, her voice got more and more excited, "started to cut away her skin and removed her bones and chopped her organs into itty bitty pieces while she watched!"

As Plutia laughed, Neptune shuddered and fought the urge to throw up. "I preferred Plutie when she was a sadistic rapist!"

"...What kind of friends do you have?!" Chrome asked, unable to hold back her emotions. "Fuck it! You, Void, just transform, because I'm going to murder you for everything you've done!"

"Huuuuuh?" Plutia looked at Chrome and narrowed her eyes. "You look... Oh!" Her eyes widened and a delighted smile came to her face. "I remember you!" Chrome jerked in shock. "You were the person who was there when I was born!" She looked at Filyn. "And she was there too."

"Chromey?" Filyn trembled as she felt the air itself start to shake and vibrate. "What is she talking about?"

"You..." Chrome was pale and she trembled as Plutia glowed red before the glow turned black and her body changed. "...You... YOU BITCH!" Chrome screamed as she saw who Plutia really was.

Iris Void chuckled, her voice was deeper and more sensual. "I was quite nice to you when I made you and your little sister leave when I came into the world."

Neptune stared, her face pale. While Iris Void looked almost identical to Iris Heart, other than her blade having a blue edge instead of a red one, her outfit was black with what looked like red blood splattered over it, her wings were black on top but the bottom were red and the hole in her chest above her breasts and the way it pulsated only made it worse.

"Alas, if you wanted to save my sister, you're a few months too late." Iris Void smirked at them. "And with all the ambient hatred and suffering in the air, I'll be able to transform for another hundred years with ease."

"...A few months?" Neptune asked softly, her legs giving out on her. "...I've been here for over six months." She whispered as she sank to her knees. 'Could I have saved her if I wasn't messing around?'

"YOU!" Chrome screamed and spread her arms out as wires formed from her finger tips and ran at Iris Void, raw anger and hate in her eyes. "I'LL KILL YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID TO MY PEOPLE!"

"Your people?" Iris Void seemingly disappeared and the next thing Chrome knew, she was kicked in the small of her back and sent flying. When Chrome landed on the ground, Iris Heart appeared above her and stomped on the silver-haired woman's chest. "If they really were your people..." She scoffed at Chrome and stabbed the former CPU in the stomach, getting a scream of pain from her. "You abandoned them to me."

A blast of lightning hit her in the back and she turned to see Rom glaring at her while Ram and Filyn tried to get Neptune to stand back up. "Oh?" Iris Void smirked and pulled her sword out of Chrome's stomach, causing her to scream as the serrated blades caused more damage as they came out. "I think I'll have fun with you!" She rushed at Rom, who stared at her with wide eyes. "Time to..."

"PEA CANNONBALL!" Peashy yelled and Iris Void looked to the side as Peashy came tumbling through the air and hit the CPU in the head, causing her to stagger as Rom blasted her with two more lightning blasts, which only caused her to jerk slightly.

A flash of light later and Purple Heart looked at Iris Void with cold determination. "Leave them, Sadie, your opponent is me." She declared before rushing at the Eden CPU.

Smirking and blocking Purple Heart's sword strike with her weapon, Iris Void chuckled. "Sadie, huh? Boy, you really are a treat, coming up with such..." A look of what could only be described as pure exhilaration appeared on her face. "Cute nicknames for me, Neppy." She licked her lips as the two pulled their weapons away from each other and slammed them against each other several times in rapid succession, twisting, spinning, striking high and blocking before striking low to go for the legs, only to find the blade blocked their counterpart. "You are good!"

Purple Heart pushed Iris Void away as he sword lit up with fire. "Blaze Break!"

Iris Void's sword glowed and crackled with power. "Thunder... STRIKE!"

When their swords clashed against each other, everyone watching had to cover their eyes as the energies erupted into a strong wind that caused the fighting CPUs hair to rapidly dance in the air while fire was blasted back in Purple Heart's face while lightning crashed backwards at Iris Void.

Iris Void was grinning while Purple Heart had a confused, slightly scared look on her face. "Don't you know? We're CPUs both using an elemental attack, of course they'd reflect back at us." Her grin increased as she increased her strength and pushed down on Purple Heart's sword, forcing her to her knees. "Mmm... Neppy, how about you just give up and I promise, when I chop you up, you won't feel any of the pain."

Purple Heart grimaced as she pushed back against Iris Void. 'Was Sadie always this strong?' Letting out a yell, she forced Iris Void off of her and spread her wings to fly into the sky. "Up here!"

Iris Void chuckled and flew up at Purple Heart, their blades clashing against each other as they flew through the air as streaks of light.

"Is this what a full power CPU can do?" Rom asked, awe in her voice as she saw the shock-waves from the attacks and the way that they had picked up speed to the point that they were seemingly disappearing and reappearing near each other.

"Chromey!" Filyn ran over to her sister and helped her to sit up. "Are you okay?"

Chrome panted and clutched her stomach. "I'll live." She looked up at the fight as it escalated and could feel her eyes starting to burn. 'Dammit, even now... I'm so useless.' She hung her head. 'Why? Why am I so weak? Why can't I..?'

_"Chrome..."_

Chrome stiffened, her eyes going wide with shock. "That voice..."

"Chromey?" Filyn looked at her sister in confusion as Chrome painfully got to her feet and looked at the building. "Chromey?"

_"Come, Chrome."_

Chrome didn't acknowledge Filyn as she staggered towards the building. Opening the door, she ignored the shock-waves and thunderous booms going on outside. When she entered the building, her eyes started to burn some more as she saw phantom images of people going on about their business as they sought an audience with her.

*Flash*

"Hey! Chrome!" Her elder sister smirked at her. "You're getting a bit lazy, you haven't been doing any work for the past week."

Chrome rolled her eyes. "You're a retired CPU, Silver Heart, let me do things my way, will ya?" She grinned at Silver Heart, "besides, don't you have a big adventure today?"

"Yeah," Silver Heart pulled Chrome into a hug, "just take it easy, will ya? I won't be around forever to help you when you need advice."

"Thanks sister." Chrome smiled.

"Hey!" An adventurer yelled as the two sisters broke their hug off, "Silver! Let's go! I don't care if you're a former CPU or not, if you don't hurry up, we're leaving you behind."

Silver's eyes went white and blank at that. "Dang it, Charlie! Fine! I'm on my way!" She ran off, waving at Chrome the entire time.

*End Flash*

"...That was the last time I saw you, Silver." Chrome whispered softly and noted that even though some of the desks had gotten worn down and rotted, others were still in relatively good condition. She frowned in confusion as she saw what looked like the outline of a person in the room pointing towards the back room. "What the hell?" She asked and walked over to the desks, kicking them hard enough to cause them to break apart, before walking past and to the back room, followed by Filyn.

"There's something that feels warm here." Filyn whispered, getting a nod from Chrome. "Eeek!" Filyn yelped as she saw what looked like a white squiggly creature in the air.

"That..." Chrome trailed off as she looked around the room. It was large and circular with the walls looking worn out and the floor looking like it needed some small repairs and the ceiling looked decent enough, but there was nothing else. "I..."

Both Chrome and Filyn were quiet as more and more white squiggly creatures seemed to float through the air. "...Wait a second, wasn't there a false wall in here?" Chrome asked and walked forward and looked at the walls. "Let's see, there has to be..."

"Chromey?" Filyn began, trepidation in her voice, "you said that Iris Void... She hurt your people. But that would mean..."

Chrome sighed and lowered her head. "...Filyn," there was a rumbling from outside the building, but Chrome ignored it. "...Many years ago, there was a beautiful country that existed." Filyn nodded, listening with rapt attention, "compared to the other countries around it, it probably wasn't much, but the people in the country loved it and their CPU. No matter what challenges occurred, things were never to hard for the people. In time, due to the isolation each nation had towards each other, the people grew used to the peaceful, slow times."

Filyn nodded, though there was a nagging in the back of her head that she knew this story. "What happened next?"

Chrome sighed softly. "The CPU of Eden was happy, but a bit lonely. Even if the people loved her, she could never really be close with them." She shook her head and closed her eyes. "For you see, years prior, her elder sister had stepped down as the CPU of the nation after she had gained the ability to transform, allowing the CPU to take over. While the elder sister had stayed around, with her stepping down as the CPU, she lost her HDD power."

"...How?" Filyn asked, confused and Chrome smiled and opened her eyes to look at Filyn.

"When the current CPU's younger sister gains the ability to transform, the previous CPU can stay as the CPU for a little while longer. But typically when a CPU Candidate gains the ability to transform, it means that the faith people have in the current CPU is not strong enough anymore and she undergoes a ritual so that she does not draw upon the Sharicite crystal anymore. In the process, she loses access to her HDD form."

Filyn nodded at hearing that. "It kind of sounds like what the Voids do."

"I suppose killing your elder sister while she draws upon the Fearicite would almost count," Chrome said as she walked over to the walls and felt along them for something. "Well, the CPU who ruled these lands, she was happy for her people, but sad because her sister had died on an adventure a few years before." Filyn nodded. "Then, one day, the Sharicite started to glow and pulse with power unlike anything that the CPU had ever seen." Chrome smiled as her fingers found a false panel on the wall. "Still here, huh?" She pushed it to the side, revealing a screen with the outline of a palm on it. "Well, the CPU was shocked when the power of the Sharicite revealed that a little sister was born into the world. A cute girl with long, red hair done up in twin pigtails."

"...Chromey..?" Filyn began as Chrome pulled off her glove and put her hand on the screen. "That sounds like..."

"Sadly, the good times were not to be." Chrome continued as the screen scanned her hand before beeping.

**"Welcome, CPU Chrome Heart."**

Chrome blinked while Filyn stared at her in shock. "Well, that's..." Chrome began.

"Chromey? You... You're a CPU?!" Filyn yelled in shock as the a nearby wall shifted and slid, tons of dust moving out of the way.

"I'm the former CPU of Eden, yes." Chrome answered her and turned to look at Filyn, "and you're my CPU Candidate. Sixty years ago, you were born into this world and less than two months after you were born, the world became corrupted by Fearicite."

Filyn had a terrified look on her face. "But... That means..."

Chrome sighed softly and hung her head. "Iris Void was born from the Fearicite. She came into this world and without the Sharicite, I couldn't transform, she batted me away with ease and tore your eye out."

Filyn gasped, her pupil shrinking as memories started to flood her mind.

*Flash*

"Chromey?" Filyn asked in fear as she felt the warm Sharicite start to twist and cool. "What's going on..?"

"I..." Chrome didn't answer as the Sharicite fell to the ground, shattering into pieces. "That's... Never happened before."

Filyn shivered, the air itself turning frigid to her. "Chromey, what's this icky cold air?"

"I..." Chrome stopped as the glow of the room turned red and condensed into a new crystal, one that was upside down and pulsating black and red. "What is... FILYN! NO!" She grabbed Filyn and pulled her back. "Don't..."

"My my..." A new voice spoke up and Chrome and Filyn turned to see what had to be a CPU in the room with them, though this one had a hole in her chest. "I think," she grinned at the two of them. "That you're in the way."

*End Flash*

Filyn trembled and fell to her knees. "...All this time... The monster that took my eye... Was here?!"

Chrome sighed softly. "Filyn, I..."

"Chromey..." Filyn looked at her, her eye watering up, "why? Why did this happen? ...Why didn't you fight?"

Chrome had a crestfallen look on her face. "...I couldn't transform, I couldn't fight. So I took you and fled, like a loser, like a coward. I took you and abandoned my people." Without saying anything more, she walked into the room that had been hidden off and found that it was still in really good condition. "After sixty years, this place was never..." Chrome trailed off as she saw what was in the center of the small, circular room. "It... It can't be."

"Chromey?" Filyn looked at the object in the center of the room. "Ooooh! Pretty!"

The object was a staff. The top of it was an orb that looked to be made of platinum. The area holding the orb looked like a Dragon's mouth that was made out of gold and silver with one eye that was a ruby and another eye that was a sapphire. The serpentine body of the Dragon curled around a metal handle.

"After all this time..." Chrome walked forward, trembling as she touched the staff, her eyes watering up. "I thought I lost this."

_"Now what kind of big sister would I be if I let my little sister lose her weapon?"_

Chrome stumbled back in shock and Filyn stared as a nearly transparent woman, a little shorter than Chrome, with short, white hair and silver eyes walked forward and smiled at them. "Chrome, Filyn, welcome home." Her body was mostly transparent and it was hard to make out any other details about her.

"...Silver... Heart... Big... Sister..?" Chrome stared in shock.

Silver Heart just smiled at her kindly.

To be continued...

* * *

I admit, I couldn't figure out what to do for Iris Void's design, but considering that Iris Heart had Neptune wondering if she was a villain the first time Neptune saw her, I thought it would work (that and there's no Chaos version of Iris Heart).

If you're unable to picture the grin Plutia had on her face, just go look up a yandere slasher smile.

I guess Neptune wasn't wrong, they really did find a Force Ghost.


	31. Resurrection

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Know what's almost as bad as losing an entire day's worth of work? When you realize that what you wrote the day before isn't good and you need to re-write almost the entire thing. That's bad.

* * *

Chapter 26

"Tell me something, Neppy." Iris Void casually commented as the two zipped across Eden's skylines, their blades clashing with enough force to create shock-waves. "Why is it that you talk as if you know me?" She asked, curiosity in her voice.

Purple Heart swung her sword in an arc to parry Iris Void's thrust at her face. "Why would you care to know?"

"Hmm, because I never knew you and I'm curious." Iris Void answered as she stopped attack and hovered backwards a bit. "Now, come on, I'm legitimately curious."

Purple Heart looked at Iris Void and bit her lip. "Dammit, why do you have to be so much like my friend?"

"Oh?" Iris Void raised an eyebrow. "I'm like a friend of yours?" A smirk came to her face as she realized something. "You're from another reality, aren't you?" Purple Heart jerked in surprise and Iris Void chuckled. "Yes, that's the only thing that makes sense. I've long since eliminated anyone who lives in Eden, even my own sister." Her eyes glowed as her blade started to crackle. "I know for a fact that the only people outside of Eden who would know of me would be that silver-haired woman and the redhead. You can transform into a CPU form, yet you lack the hole in your chest like I do and I don't believe there's any other CPUs like that alive today."

"...Okay, that makes sense, but how do you figure that I'm from another reality?"

Iris Void sighed and shook her head. "I've had so little to do that I watch old television shows that were recorded and read books."

"...You don't nap?" Purple Heart asked, shock on her face as she couldn't believe that Iris Void wasn't as lazy as Iris Heart was.

"That would mean I'd have less time to torment people if I slept." Iris Void answered, causing Purple Heart to twitch. "So you're from an alternate reality, huh?" She tapped her chin and grinned at Purple Heart. "And you know a version of me, huh? Tell me, how is she compared to me?"

Purple Heart was about to answer when memories of what Iris Heart did to Noire, to Nepgear, to Mr. Badd, how she wanted Blanc to cry because she thought it would be cute, 'though to be fair, I actually agree with Plutie on that one, Blanc is pretty cute when she cries.'

Iris Void chuckled softly. "Your silence tells me everything. She's a lot like I am, huh?" She narrowed her eyes while smirking at Purple Heart. "It makes me wonder, are you really friends with her? Do you actually want to fight me?"

Purple Heart growled. "Unlike you, Iris Heart never killed anyone!"

"Oh?" Iris Void raised an eyebrow, "I wonder... Is that the only thing that separates us? Are you sure that she wouldn't kill someone?"

"What are you getting at?" Purple Heart growled as her sword lit up in flames and she rushed forward, her blade parried by Iris Void's crackling blade as their energies repulsed each other. "Plutie might be a sadist that terrifies everyone, but she'd never kill anyone."

"I wonder," Iris Void grinned at Purple Heart as the two struggled against each other, "are you saying that because you know? Or are you only saying that because you consider her a friend?" Her grin got larger as she felt Purple Heart falter slightly. "I bet..." She licked her lips, "that your friend is a lot worse than you're willing to admit."

"You're wrong!" Purple Heart yelled back at Iris Void, but her mind couldn't help but think back over a decade in time.

*Flash*

"Neptune! Help!" Purple Sister cried out as Iris Heart leered at her while looming overhead and held a riding crop in her hand. "Please!" Purple Sister had tears leaking out of her eyes as she looked at her sister.

"Shouldn't you help her?" Black Heart asked Purple Heart.

Purple Heart sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Dealing with Sadie is too much of a hassle. It's best if Nepgear learns the terror of Sadie first hand."

"NOOO!" Purple Sister cried out as she was struck by Iris Heart across the thigh. "Owwie!"

"Ooooh!" Iris Heart purred and slapped Purple Sister's butt with her riding crop, getting another cry of pain from her. "You cry out so deliciously. I wonder..." She licked her lips in anticipation, "how much pain can you handle before it becomes pleasure?"

"AAHHHH!" Purple Sister screamed as her butt, thighs, legs and other parts of her body were whipped over and over again.

*End Flash*

"I can tell," Iris Void chuckled at Purple Heart, "you realize it now."

Purple Heart's eyes seemingly flashed as she let out a scream, striking at Iris Void with abandon. Iris Void, for her part, parried the attacks. "You know nothing about my Plutie! She loves people! She's friends with so many! She loves kids!"

"Yet I bet she's willing to torment those she calls a friend, doesn't she?" Iris Void grinned at Purple Heart. When the purple CPU faltered this time, Iris Void kicked Purple Heart in the gut with her left leg, causing Purple Heart to double over and cough up some blood. She then did a flip in mid-air and slammed her right leg into Purple Heart's back, causing her to cry out in pain and go flying to the ground below.

"Big sis!" Ram yelled and ran to Purple Heart, who was struggling to get up. "Are you okay?" She asked and helped her to her feet while Rom and Peashy stood in front of them protectively as Iris Void slowly lowered herself to the ground.

"My, my..." Iris Void shook her head. "So sad," she gave Purple Heart a look of pity while Purple Heart looked at her, "just this much affects you so much, huh?"

Purple Heart panted as she tried to catch her breath. "What are you..?"

"What I told you," Iris Void shook her head, a sad look on her face, "deep down, you know what I say is true. That your friend is no different than me."

"That's not true!" Purple Heart yelled back as she recovered from Iris Void's last attack and pointed her sword at Iris Void, anger in her eyes. "Iris Heart might be similar to you, but she would never do the things you did! In fact, when our daughter was scared of her, she was legitimately saddened by that fact."

Iris Void stared at Purple Heart in shock. "...CPUs can have children together? This is most interesting."

"...You're a mommy?" Peashy asked Purple Heart, who blushed softly.

"Get your mind out of the gutter! We adopted some orphans and raised them as our daughters!" Purple Heart shot back at Iris Void. "Enough of this, Void..." She snarled, genuine anger on her face. "I've had it with your kind! You steal my friends' faces! You harm innocent people! You torment and kill your sisters?!"

Iris Void chuckled as she saw Purple Heart start to glow softly. "Careful there, Neppy, you might become a Void if you're not cautious."

Before Purple Heart could say anything more, there was a scream of anger and a metallic streak filled the air. "What the?"

"IRIS VOID!"

Iris Void looked up, shock on her face as someone came crashing in at her. "What the hell!?" She screamed as something hit her weapon so hard it shattered. Before she could ask any more questions a strong blow hit her in the chest, sending her flying backwards where she landed on her back and slid back so far that she met the stairs leading up to the area they were fighting in and tumbled down them.

"I'll never forgive you." The new person muttered darkly as the glow around their body started to die down.

"Another CPU?" Purple Heart asked, shock in her voice. "Where did this one come from?"

(-)

Several minutes prior...

"You're..." Chrome looked at Silver in shock. "How?"

Silver smiled at her softly. "Well, before I ended up like this I moved your weapon here."

"...How do you know that I wouldn't have needed it before this?" Chrome asked, causing her sister to sweat-drop heavily. "Nevermind." She sighed and shook her head. "Silver, this..."

"Um..." Filyn raised a hand. "If that's Chromey's weapon, is that her human or CPU weapon?"

"Chrome was unusual." Silver answered her. "I still don't know how her HDD weapon ended up being the same as this one." She giggled softly. "I remember when you had this made," she laughed at Chrome's groan.

"Please no, we don't have time for this flashback."

Filyn looked at them in confusion. "What? What?"

Silver laughed and winked at Filyn, "when Chrome was only a few months old, she had this staff made and said it was her royal scepter."

Chrome's face was slightly red as she remembered that. "Please don't talk anymore."

Silver smiled for a few more moments before sobering up and looking at Chrome. "Are you ready to fix your mistake?" She asked and held up her hand, the staff moving forward and towards Chrome.

"...Do I deserve another chance?" Chrome asked as she looked at the staff in front of her.

"That's not for you to decide." Silver said as the room was suddenly filled with transparent people. As Chrome and Filyn looked around in shock, spinning in place as they saw so many people, Silver continued, "a CPU is bound to the whims of her people, in many ways, we're in a cage, our lives are chosen for us the moment we're born."

"Chrome Heart..." The spirit of an old man walked forward and smiled at Chrome. "I never stopped believing in you."

"Chromey!" Some children yelled and waved at Chrome, "you were awesome at the park!"

The spirit of a young man and woman both stepped forward and smiled at Chrome. "None of us stopped believing in you, Chrome. We knew you'd return." The man said to her.

The woman spoke up next. "Please, we know it's not much, but take what little shares our spirits have left and avenge us."

Chrome turned to look at Silver, who nodded. Reaching forward with a trembling hand, she took the staff and her eyes widened as she felt all the spirits in the room, all the ghosts of the people she abandoned flowing not only into her, but into her staff. "This is..."

"Now!" Silver spoke as she started to glow. "Take what we have and use it, little sister." She disappeared, flowing directly into Chrome, whose eyes started to glow as her pupils changed into a power symbol.

"...Thank you, Silver Heart, my big sister," Chrome whispered softly, "and to everyone else..." Her face became determined in ways that she hadn't been in decades. "Thank you for giving me this last chance to redeem myself. I promise you..." A white glow covered her body and got brighter and brighter. "I will NEVER let you down again!"

Filyn winced as the light became so bright that she couldn't see. "Chromey? What are you..?!"

"ACCESS!"

(-)

The glow around the CPU died down enough to reveal a woman with long, metalic-colored hair, blue-green eyes and was wearing a white processor with black and blue trim. A choker of metallic black was around her neck that connected to the top of her processor, which covered the bottom of her breasts. Her thighs and shoulders were bare while her arms were covered in white gloves that went up to the center of her biceps, her legs were covered in metallic black boots that went from her feet to half way up her thighs. On her head were two hair ornaments and her wings were black and jagged with blue energy that became much larger wings on her back. In her hand was an ornate staff that crackled with power.

The CPU's eyes glowed as she glared at Iris Void. "For all the people of Eden that you hurt, for your sister, I, Chrome Heart, am here to exact punishment for all the people of Eden."

"Well," Iris Void chuckled as she pushed herself to her feet and summoned forth a new blade. "This is a surprise."

Chrome Heart glared at Iris Void and her wings burst with power as she flew down at the Void, who spread her wings and flew into the air. "Get back here!" She screamed and flew after Iris Void at speeds the Void couldn't dodge in time. As she passed Iris Void, Chrome Heart smashed her staff into the Void's stomach, causing her eyes to bug out in pain. "You slaughtered everyone for your own sick amusement."

Iris Void raised her head as her eyes glowed. "And I'd do it again!" Electrical energy started to cover her as she let loose a pulse of power that forced Chrome Heart back. "Don't presume to know anything about a Void!" She yelled and rushed in, her blade clashing against Chrome Heart's staff. "Unlike you Hearts, we Voids aren't slaves to the whims of the people!"

"Is that what you think?" Chrome Heart asked as she pushed back against Iris Void. "That we're nothing but slaves to our people?" The two took off into the air as they traded blows against each other.

"It was something Silver Heart wrote down," Iris Void sneered at her, "that she sometimes wished that she was a human, so she would be able to choose her own path, instead of being forced to being the protector of the country that could just abandon her at any time they felt like it."

Chrome Heart chuckled softly. "If that's what you think, then it's no wonder you Voids are as fucked up as you are." With a yell, she rushed at Iris Void and slammed her staff into the Void's weapon. "It's true that no CPU had the right to refuse what we are and yes, it is true that we sometimes get envious of humans and how they can be whatever they want to be," she pulled her staff back as she and Iris Void clashed weapons against each other over and over, "but that's natural!"

Down below, Purple Heart had a look of quiet contemplation on her face. '...Other CPUs feel the same way?' She knew that she sometimes got like that, that sometimes she sometimes wished that she had been human and could have chosen her own path. 'Do Vert, Noire or Blanc feel like that?' She wouldn't be surprised if they didn't, however, since all of them seemed to enjoy it. 'Or am I the only CPU with such a selfish desire?' She knew that the Noire from the Ultradimension didn't feel like that as she had chosen to be a CPU intentionally, knowing the risks that came with attempting to achieve that level of power.

In the air, Iris Void sneered "Is it?" Iris Void shot back. "Perhaps for you, but as a Void, I never wanted to be human."

"That's because you're nothing more than a Devil." Chrome shot back as she paused in her pursuit of Iris Void for a moment, to let her get some distance. "However! I was always a Goddess! A protector! And my relationship with my people was never parasitic like yours!"

Iris Void sneered at her. "Parasitic? I don't think so." She snapped her wrist to the side and her sword became a chain-whip that glowed red and crackled with power. "Your very reality crumbles unless you do everything that the humans demand of you." She swung it outwards at Chrome Heart, who batted it away. "You think," she swung it at Chrome Heart again, "that you're," again, she swung it at Chrome Heart, increasing speed and creating a blender of blades that Chrome Heart couldn't get through, "any better than me?!" The air around her started to crackle and shake as she glowed red. "I'll show you what I can do as Iris Nightmare!"

"She is better than you are." Purple Heart said softly from behind Iris Void, "and I won't let you turn into your Nightmare form, Sadie," Iris Void's eyes widened as she turned to look behind her before three blades lodged themselves into her back and pierced through her stomach. "Chrome! NOW!"

Iris Void looked back at Chrome Heart and her eyes widened in fear as the glowing wings on the other CPU's back suddenly glowed brightly and expanded in size. "No! It can't..."

"V2 STRIKE!" Chrome Heart screamed as she went from standing still to right in front of Purple Heart so fast that their noses were almost touching. "Hello."

"Hello." Purple Heart smirked and looked back at Iris Void as Chrome Heart did the same. Suddenly Iris Void's body started to jerk and spasm as energy seemingly struck it at every which angle possible, deep cuts forming on her body as she twisted and screamed in pain. Eventually the attack ended and Iris Void fell to the ground and bounced as she landed before coming to a stop in a heap, her body started to glow black.

"No..." Iris Void's eyes widened as she felt her transformation dissipating. A flash of black light engulfed Iris Void as her body reverted to her human form. "Noooo!" Plutia panted and put her hands on the ground as she tried to catch her breath.

A moment later, a shadow appeared over her. Looking up, she saw the angry, stern look on Chrome Heart's face. "You have no idea how much I've waited for this moment for the past sixty years."

Plutia gave her a small smirk. "Buuuuut... You'll NEEEEVER have your people back." The raw anger she was feeling from Chrome Heart made her smirk get larger. "I still win..."

There was a crack in the distance as Chrome raised her staff and brought it down on Plutia's skull as hard as she could. "AND WHOSE FAULT IS THAT?!" Chrome Heart yelled as she slammed the staff on Plutia's prone body over and over again. "YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO TAKE THIS WORLD AND RUIN IT LIKE YOU DID!"

It was almost a minute later of her slamming her mace-like staff on Plutia's body when Purple Heart grabbed her wrists. "Chrome... Enough." Chrome Heart looked at her in a mixture of anger and pure anguish, tears falling from her eyes. "She's dead."

A moment later, Plutia's body erupted into a pillar of red light that shot to the heavens as her flesh, clothes and self dissolved into particles of light.

Dropping the staff to the ground with a loud thump, Chrome Heart turned to Purple Heart and trembled, pulling the other CPU into a hug as she started to cry into Purple Heart's shoulder.

"Your nightmare's over, Chrome." Purple Heart whispered softly as she rubbed the sobbing CPU's back softly. "She can no longer hurt you, Filyn or anyone else ever again."

Chrome Heart could only cry. Years of anger, regret, pain and loss came rushing out as her emotions finally found release as her tormentor was finally dead. 'My people... I finally avenged you,' she thought while she cried, 'I'm so, so sorry it took me so long.'

Purple Heart said nothing as she hugged Chrome Heart and let her vent her emotions.

To be continued...

* * *

Oh look, they got through a Void without needing to fight her Nightmare form.

I guess killing off all the people who power the Fearicite is a bad idea, huh?


	32. Destruction

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 27

"Um..." Ram looked on the two nervously. "Big sis, who's that? She looks like Chrome."

Chrome Heart let go of the hug and looked at Ram, smiling softly, even with tears still running down her face. "I am Chrome." She rubbed her eyes to stop the tears but found they wouldn't stop.

"Hey! Chromey!" Filyn yelled as she ran out of the large building. "I went to check on the Fearicite chamber and..." She had a confused look on her face. "It wasn't glowing very much."

"If Fearicite works like Sharicite," Chrome Heart looked at her, "then with fewer negative emotions powering it, it should shrink and lose its glow."

"Should we check on it?" Purple Heart suggested.

"Um..." Filyn spoke up, "it fell to the ground and shattered a little bit ago." Both Chrome Heart and Purple Heart snapped their attention to her. "So... Um..."

"...Chrome, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Purple Heart asked.

"I think so, Neptune, but I don't know where I'll be able to find a working camera in this swamp." Chrome Heart smirked at Purple Heart, who laughed at her.

"That would be interesting, but no, I'm thinking..." Suddenly Purple Heart was cut off as everything started to shake. "Aaaand this is what I was worried about." She flew to Rom and Ram, grabbing them and flying to Peashy, who climbed on her back while Chrome Heart grabbed her staff and then Filyn. "Let's get out of here!"

"What's happening?!" Ram yelled in fright as the two CPUs flew back to the ship. "What's going on?"

"I'll explain when we get out of here." Purple Heart replied as she and Chrome Heart zipped through the air.

(-)

Back at the ship...

"Finally!" Linda yelled as she wiped her forehead of sweat. "Got this fucking thing working!"

"Yes, and all you had to do was hit it, take your shirt off and sweat in your bra and panties for the past hour, Chu." Warechu deadpanned while Gust nodded.

"Excuse me for being plain and unsexy." Linda muttered as she grabbed her clothes. "Anyway, that should work now, I'll go see about getting us out of the swamp and..." There was a shaking and Linda fell on her butt while Warechu looked around in confusion. "How come you didn't fall down, rat?" Linda asked as she got up and rubbed her rear end.

"These wings aren't for show, you know." Warechu answered her. "Um, that's not normal." Another shaking happened and Linda grumbled as she quickly put her pants on.

"Ya think!?" Linda yelled as she ran out of the engine room where she saw Gust getting up. "You okay?"

"Gust is fine, no flying butts this time." Gust shook her head as she pushed herself to her feet as another shaking took place. "What's happening?"

"I dunno, I'm going to try and see if we can move though." Linda said as the small group made their way through the sleeping quarters and to the recreational area where IF was on the ground and gripping at her arm while grimacing while Compa was laying on her back with her legs up in the air. "IF! You okay?"

"Fuck!" IF swore and rubbed her arm while removing her coat to look at the injury and sighed. "Okay, skin wasn't broken, but it sure feels bad."

"Probably a deep bruise." Compa said as she rolled to the side. "Linda, go start the ship, Mister Mouse, will you and Gust feel along Iffy's arm and tell me if you feel the area sink in or move around in ways it shouldn't?"

"Sure." The two moved to IF's side and helped her while Linda walked to the cockpit and looked back at IF in worry before sighing and going inside.

As she got in there, Linda threw her shirt onto a chair and got to work starting the ship up. She mentally sighed in relief as it started with no problem. "Now can we get out of the murk and muck?" She asked as she tried to get the ship to fly up, only to find that the ship was shifting but not moving. "FUCK!" She screamed and slammed her hands on the control panel as the ship shook again while the ground rumbled. "What the fuck can I do now?!"

There was a tapping at the window and Linda looked up to see Purple Heart floating there. She got to the window and pushed it open. "What's going on?"

"I'll tell you when we get going." Purple Heart explained to her. "Rom, Ram, Filyn and Peashy are on the top right now. Got any rope?"

Linda nodded and jumped down to under the control console and pulled out some rope. "I don't know if you're strong enough to pull this ship out. It's pretty stuck."

Purple Heart smirked at her. "I'm a lot stronger than I look." She said as she took the rope. "Alright, we'll get this hooked up to the rails on top, you get the engines going and try to move."

Linda nodded and went back to getting the ship moving again. "Wait, she didn't mention Chrome."

(-)

Outside...

"Are you sure this will work?" Chrome Heart asked as the two worked to get the rope attached to various parts on the top of the ship.

"I hope so." Purple Heart said while the CPU Candidates worked on making sure that the rope was tight in spots with Rom and Ram reinforcing it with magic and Peashy pulling the knots tight while Filyn helped her.

"Well, let's get this going," Chrome Heart said as she took one last look at her nation. "...You know, I wonder why the other nations didn't start to fall apart right away."

"They were still thriving." Purple Heart told her, "had they been almost dead and the Fearicite shattered on its own, things would have been different." Chrome Heart gave her a look and she shrugged. "I'm not certain, but I think Histy once told me about that. I'll have to ask her."

Chrome Heart nodded as they got the ropes finished and the two CPUs grabbed them and pulled hard to get the airship out of the murk and muck. As the ship started to shift and move, the two let out a yell while Rom and Ram reinforced the ropes so they wouldn't break. "Dammit, it's not moving!"

"I don't suppose you have any sort of wind spells or techniques?" Purple Heart asked, not feeling any sort of give. "Dammit, there's got to be a way."

"Big sis!" Ram yelled out, her eyes wide. "The ropes are breaking!"

Chrome Heart growled as her body started to glow a silver color. "I might be a loser CPU, but, please! World! I know you hate me, but just this once will you let me do what I need to do to save everyone?!"

"Wait!" Purple Heart's eyes widened as she saw what Chrome Heart was doing. "That's dangerous! You're burning up your shares!"

"If it gets us out of here..." Chrome Heart smiled at Purple Heart softly. "If I don't make it, make sure to take care of Filyn for me."

"Chrome!" Purple Heart yelled as Chrome Heart's body glowed so brightly that it was painful to look at. A burst of light erupted from Chrome and pushed Purple Heart away and back to the ship while the swamp was forced away from the airship, freeing it and allowing it to rise into the air.

As she felt her transformation wear off, Chrome looked at the swamp that was Eden and saw it rapidly start to deteriorate. "...Rest in peace everyone." She sighed and closed her eyes, preparing to fall to her death.

Which might have worked better had Rom and Ram not used their magic to make the rope wrap around her body and pull her back onto the airship and out of danger.

"Dang it, Chromey!" Filyn hugged Chrome, who was looking surprised, hard. "Don't scare me so much."

"Yeah," Chrome smiled softly and hugged her back. "I'm sorry."

Purple Heart smiled as she let her transformation end, glad to be out of there.

After a few moments, the group walked over to the guard rail and watched as the country of Eden, Chrome and Filyn's home country, shook and sank into the ocean, as if it had never been there to begin with.

"...We have a lot to talk about." Chrome said softly.

(-)

A few minutes later...

"Well, at least my arm is only bruised..." IF began as she looked at the others while moving her arm around. "That's good."

"Good." Linda said as she slid up to IF and put an arm around her. "I'd hate to have to fix your arm if the flesh tore up again."

"That wasn't fun." IF admitted, remembering the stitches that had to be applied to her body the last time that her flesh tore apart. She then looked at Neptune and Chrome. "So, Chrome, what's the big announcement you need to make?"

Chrome sighed softly and looked at Neptune, who nodded to her. "I don't know where to start..."

"How about the fact that you're really my big sister and a CPU?" Filyn asked, causing Gust, Linda, Warechu, Compa and IF to stare at her in shock.

"...Chrome's a CPU?" IF asked as she was the first to recover her shock. "...She's a Void?"

Chrome shook her head. "You misunderstand, IF. I'm not a Void, but rather, my real name? It's Chrome Heart. I am..." She sighed and shook her head. "The former CPU of the land mass we landed on."

"Chromey was the CPU of a swamp?" Compa asked, confused. "But if Chromey was a CPU, then..."

"Filyn is former the CPU Candidate of Eden." Chrome continued. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner."

"Sorry she says." Linda groused, getting some looks from the others. "Yeah, sorry, you're probably sorry that you could have done something about the Voids but you were just sitting out at the outpost and doing nothing while everyone in the world suffered, weren't you?"

"Linda!" Compa gasped and pointed her left hook at the green-haired girl. "Apologize to Chromey, she doesn't..."

"I agree with Linda," IF interrupted Compa and gave Chrome a dirty look, "if you were a CPU that's not a Void, how come you didn't do a damn thing about White Void?" Tears welled up in IF's eyes as she thought about Marvelous, Cyberconnect2 and Falcom. "Why didn't you save them?!"

"I couldn't transform." Chrome told her calmly, having expected this, "what good would it have done if I had challenged White Void openly? I did once and had trouble walking afterwords. It took me a decade to heal from that injury, IF."

"Lucky you!" IF snapped at her. "You get to heal from your injuries!" She whipped off her jacket and pulled off her shirt, revealing a bare, but badly burned, scarred and discolored upper body. "Me? I have to live with this as a reminder for the rest of my life. I have to remember my friends who died. And all you did was hide out and do nothing for years!" She then pointed at Neptune, who jerked in surprise, "if not for Nep, you'd still be hiding and running, wouldn't you?!"

Looking at the topless, burned girl, Chrome said nothing. There wasn't anything she could say to the accusation.

"...I thought so." IF muttered as she put her shirt back on. "While the people of this world suffered and died, you hid away. You were the only one who could have done anything."

"And what should Chromey have done?" Filyn asked, standing up and glaring at IF. "Fight? And then die because she couldn't transform?!" She grabbed her eyepatch and ripped it off. "In case you forgot, IF!" Her hollow eye socket seemed to glow. Even though there was a filling in the socket to protect what was behind it, the sight was still unsettling, "I'm the CPU Candidate of Eden and look what happened to me!"

IF glared at Filyn before turning her glare back at Chrome, who looked at her sadly. "Well?!"

"If I had died fighting the CPUs, IF," Chrome began softly, "what good would it have done?"

"Hey!" Neptune spoke up and stood in front of Chrome while frowning sadly at IF. "Iffy, come on. You're being a real downer."

"Shut up! This doesn't concern you!" IF snapped at Neptune, who looked at her in shock. "I'm really grateful to you, Nep. I am, but right now I want to know why Chrome did NOTHING while the world suffered and..."

"STOP IT!"

IF turned to look at Rom, who was glaring at her. "Hey, now..."

"NO!" Rom's face became covered in shadow as her eyes started to glow red. "Stop blaming Chrome! You didn't do anything when you were healthy, did you? Did you or your friends try to stop Blanc when she was tormenting everyone?" She shook as memories of those days when Blanc would torment them came rushing back. "No one tried to help me or Ram... No one but Compa and she lost her arms because of us!" Tears started to fall out of her eyes. "When Blanc was beating me up, you didn't do anything! Big Sis Neptune did! I almost transformed into a Void! Big Sis was only kind to me and Ram!"

"You didn't trust us." Ram continued with a troubled look on her face. "You didn't even trust Big Sis Neptune. If you knew Chrome was a CPU..."

"Pea knows," Peashy continued, "Pea knows that you're a big dummy."

"Enough," Chrome said to them, "IF, if you want to leave, to hate me for not telling you the truth for years, that's fine. But let me ask you, didn't it seem odd that I never aged? I've known you for years now. I've shown no signs of aging. Besides, if I told you I was a CPU, what good would it have done?"

"I... I..." IF trembled, anger evident in her features.

"I couldn't prove I was a CPU," Chrome said softly, "and no one at the outpost trusted or liked CPUs. So what would you have had me do, IF?"

IF said nothing as she stood up and walked off, her eyes covered in shadow. Linda followed after her.

Chrome sighed heavily. "...Gust? Compa? Warechu?"

Warechu shrugged at her. "You protected us, you stopped White Void. You can't change what happened, but you're stopping it now, right?"

"That's right." Compa smiled at Chrome. "You're fixing the bad things, right, Chromey?"

"...I'm trying." Chrome sighed softly.

"Um," Ram spoke up softly, "can you go HDD again?" She looked confused when Chrome shook her head. "Why not?"

"Because I don't have a supply of Shares to power me anymore." Chrome told her. "Even with what I had, I was running out even before I did that Share Burst to get us out the swamp. And that was all the Shares I had left, so I'm out of power again."

"OH!" Neptune's eyes lit up. "That reminds me." She dug into her pocket and pulled out her phone. "Need to make a phone call!" She scampered out of the room.

"So..." Chrome looked at the others, "any other questions?"

(-)

"What do you want?" IF asked as she laid on her stomach on her bed.

Linda crawled into bed with IF and pulled her into a hug. "You're not wrong." She whispered to IF, who was trembling. "But maybe you were too harsh on Chrome?" She chuckled as she felt the confusion coming from IF. "I admit, I shouldn't have said that, but I think I was just surprised and upset that she was a CPU this whole time."

"Why?" IF suddenly rolled over and hugged Linda, shaking. "Why didn't she fight?"

Linda didn't answer and held her close. "I don't know." Linda knew that IF was a rough and tumble girl who didn't want pity.

But she was also someone who lost her closest friends to a fire that White Void had been responsible for and Linda knew that IF never forgave herself for surviving while none of her friends had.

Linda just held her friend and let her cry and vent. After all, IF had listened to her bitch and gripe about a ton of things in life after all. 'And besides...' Linda's thoughts trailed off as she rubbed IF's back gently. 'I won't let anyone hurt you again.'

(-)

In another part of the ship, Neptune found a quiet spot and dialed a number and waited for someone to pick up.

After thirty seconds, there was an answer on the other end. _"Hello?"_

"Histy!" Neptune's eyes lit up happily.

_"Neptune,"_ Histoire's voice was full of relief. _"I am glad to hear from you. Are you okay?"_

"I think so... I didn't get hurt this last time at least." Neptune giggled and rubbed the back of her head.

_"...Neptune, what's going on? You got hurt? What's going on?"_

"Um, well..." Neptune wasn't sure how much she should tell Histoire and decided against telling her the full story for now. "This and that, been in fights against bad CPUs."

_"Oh dear. You mean like how Rei and Uzume's other self were?"_

"Uh huh." Neptune nodded at the question. "Hey, Histy, I wanna say something before I forget."

_"What is it?"_

"I'm really sorry." Neptune replied, a sullen look coming across her face, "for being a really bad CPU."

_"Neptune, you..."_

"Enough of that," Neptune rubbed her eyes, feeling tears forming for some reason, "hey, Histy... If, say, someone were to break a Sharicite crystal, what would happen?"

_"Break it?"_ Histoire asked in confusion. _"Well... Hmm, assuming that the amount of shares were decently strong, let's say somewhere between where Leanbox and Lowee are most of the time, then the Share energy would cover the nation and give the nation's oracle enough time to repair and replace the Sharicite. However, it's unlikely the CPU would survive such an event. You and Nepgear, due to your events in the Ultradimension, are likely an exception due to the CPU Memory that the two of you absorbed."_

Neptune nodded as she listened in. "Okay, I get that, but what if the nation was doing really bad and the Sharicite crystal fell down and shattered on its own?"

_"...Neptune, if that were to happen, the CPU would have had to have driven everyone in the nation off or killed them." _Histoire replied to her._ "If, for example, the Sharicite got that weak that it would fall down and shatter on its own, then the nation would have to be in a really bad condition and would sink into oblivion rapidly."_

"...I see," Neptune said softly, "no wonder you were always..."

_"Yes, and if you're curious about this, I hope you're..." _Histoire stopped and sighed._ "I'm sorry, I imagine things are hard for you."_

"...Histy, tell Nepgear I'm really sorry." Neptune said softly.

_"...Neptune? What's wrong? I've never heard you sound so defeated before."_

There was a beep on the phone as it hung up and Neptune sighed as she put it down. "...I'm such a bad sister."

"No you're not!" Neptune snapped her head up and stared at Peashy, who was staring at her hard. "Neptuna is an awesome big sister!" She ran up and hugged Neptune tightly. "No being sad! Because then Pea will get sad and then Rom and Ram will get sad and then..."

Neptune smiled softly as she patted Peashy's back. 'Iffy said the same thing to me when you were taken from me in Plutie's world.'

A moment later, Chrome appeared in front of her, frowning softly. "Uh... Chromey? What's wrong?"

"...Neptune," Chrome began, unsure how to bring this up, before sighing and going for broke. "I'm worried about you." Neptune gave her a confused look and Chrome let out another soft sigh. "I'm worried that you're getting too stressed out due to you fighting those CPUs that look like your friends and with how close you've gotten to the Fearicite, not once but twice now... And with how you've been behaving lately... I'm worried that you've been infected by the Fearicite and it's starting to affect and influence you."

Neptune and Peashy both stared at her, wide-eyed in shock.

To be continued...

* * *

Ah nerts!

Now I know that some of you figured out this plot point already, but I couldn't respond to your reviews without spoiling this.


	33. Plans

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

So I realized something as I wrote the last chapter.

IF's burns and the discoloration of her skin matches those who died in the fire.

IF's skin is darker than normal thanks to the burns, but she has orange, yellow and blue skin discoloration that runs down her body.

That matches her three friends. Orange is Marvy, Blue is Falcom (her jacket is blue) and her darker skin and the yellow streaks match CyberConnect2.

Even in death, those three are with her. She just doesn't know it.

* * *

Chapter 28

"What?" Neptune asked, her face pale as she trembled. "What do you mean?"

Chrome sighed softly. "I've been thinking about it for awhile. Tell me something, how are you feeling?"

"Well..." Neptune began, "I don't have broken bones and..."

"Neptune," Chrome interrupted, "you know what I mean." Neptune sighed while Peashy looked on in worry. "Come on, tell me." She knew that if she was right that things would be very tricky moving forward and she really, REALLY hoped that she wasn't right.

"I..." Neptune trembled softly, "I can't..."

"Let's go back," Chrome suggested and helped Neptune up and followed her back to the ship's living room.

(-)

One quick explanation later...

"Is Nep Nep going to become a Void then?" Compa asked, looking at Neptune in worry as Rom and Ram sat next to the purple goddess while Peashy sat in her lap, the three of them looking at the person they viewed as their big sister with worry.

"I don't know." Chrome answered her. She looked at everyone and gave Gust and Warechu a sharp look. "I don't think I need to tell you all this, but keep this from IF and Linda."

"Huh?" Compa and Neptune asked in confusion.

"You saw how they reacted when they found out that I was a CPU." Chrome pointed out, "now imagine how they'd react if they found out that Neptune might possibly be infected by the Fearicite." Compa and Gust both cringed while Warechu nodded. "There's two other reasons I'm worried about you." She looked at Neptune, who gave her a slightly despondent look. "The CPUs of this world look like friends of yours, right?"

Neptune nodded at her. "There's some differences. My Blanc has brown hair and Verty-poo didn't wander around naked. Plutie would do things that would make you cringe or hate her, but she never killed anyone."

"...Big sis Neptune..?" Ram began, "why do you say "Verty-poo" when it comes to her?"

Neptune blushed softly. "Ah, well... She did some lewd things to me not long before I came here." She sweat-dropped at the looks she was getting. "Unlike the bad Vert, she's really nice and is more like a lazy big sister to me, Blanc, Noire and our sisters."

"...Who's Noire?" Chrome asked, curious about that last name.

"She's the CPU of Lastation." Neptune told her and sighed. "She's kind of lazy, but really earnest, she's really shy and nervous around lots of people despite loving to dress up in costumes and she's recently started doing some minor voice acting for anime and video games when she's not too busy."

"Does she have a sister?" Rom asked, getting a nod from Neptune.

"Uh huh, her little sister is Uni." Neptune smiled softly. "Good kid, she tries to prove she's better than Noire is. The two used to be really awkward around each other, but now they're really close."

"Yeah." Chrome nodded and sighed softly. "Look, I'll say this," she rubbed the bridge of her nose, "as a Goddess, Neptune's more attuned to how people are feeling than a human normally is."

"Because you are?" Gust asked, getting a nod from Chrome. "Gust understands, but what does that have to do with anything?"

Chrome sighed softly. "Between the stress of having to fight people who look like her friends," Chrome knew that couldn't be easy, after all, Neptune had to be close to all of her friends if she talked about them so fondly, "and potentially being corrupted by the Fearicite..." Chrome trailed off and shook her head, "anyway, even if people are putting their faith in Neptune, you have to think about what they were going through before Neptune came along."

"...Blanc was a horrible monster," Ram began softly, "the people hated her, she was so mean to them."

Chrome nodded at her. "Right. Even though you two and Neptune worked hard to get positive feelings from everyone in Lowee, the people there still likely don't like anything remotely related to a CPU right now and Neptune's been absorbing those negative emotions. And in Leanbox, well..." She sighed, knowing that there was no way to talk about this without being blunt, "the fact that the people of Leanbox suffered through a Void that basically had them all as sex slaves, it's likely more than a few of them are feeling lust towards Neptune."

"Um..." Rom began, her face turning slightly red, "is that why I feel funny when I looked at all those bare butts?"

Chrome sighed softly and nodded at the short-haired girl. 'She had to be born into puberty, huh?' That was fun. "Yes, it's probably why you wanted to see some of them naked." Rom and Ram both blushed more and she narrowed her eyes at them. "You two didn't do anything in Leanbox that I should know about did you?"

"Um..." Ram looked away. "We saw some people doing some stuff in a back alley naked, there was lots of noise, and a weird smell and..."

"We just watched," Rom continued, her face turning more red, "but it was really..."

Chrome sighed softly and rubbed her forehead. "I get it."

Neptune blushed and looked at them. "...Do I need to talk to you two about that stuff?" It was so bad when she had to talk to her daughters when they had hit puberty and had taken an interest in that stuff.

"I can do that for you, Nep Nep." Compa smiled as she raised her hook into the air.

When Neptune sighed in relief and smiled at her, Chrome continued, "anyway, because there's no Sharicite to filter the emotions for her, Neptune's getting all of the emotions straight into her."

"So what should we do, Chromey?" Filyn asked as she looked at Neptune in worry.

"We have a few days," Chrome said and smiled at Filyn, "we have enough supplies, I'll see if Linda will land us on the water and we can just take a day to go swimming and relax." Everyone looked at her in surprise. "Right now, that's all I can recommend." Chrome gave Neptune a sharp look. "You need to de-stress and unwind. And you four," she pointed to Rom, Ram, Filyn and Peashy, "you're to help Neptune by making sure she's surrounded by love and positive emotions for the rest of the week, okay?" They nodded and Chrome smiled softly. "Good."

Neptune wasn't sure if this would work, but she hoped so. 'At least I hope it slows the bad stuff down.'

(-)

Meanwhile, in Hyperdimension...

"What the goodness, Uni?!" Nepgear yelled at her friend, who was looking back at her with defiance in her eyes. "Come on, why'd you act like that to Neptune?"

"She goes and disappears on you, again. How many times has it been now?" Uni asked, frustration in her voice. "It almost feels like she spends more time in other dimensions instead of this one."

"You know that's not true." Nepgear tried to protest, though she remembered why she had made Neptune that cell phone to begin with. "She doesn't..."

"Yes she does!" Uni interrupted her. "You do more work than she does for Planeptune. Maybe you should just have Histoire make you the CPU already?"

Nepgear stiffened, her pupils shrinking. "Uni, that..."

"I'm sick of seeing your sister run off and leave you behind, and you're always so upset when she does!" Uni yelled, her eyes screwed shut as tears formed in them. "If you were the CPU, then it wouldn't matter if she was gone all the time!"

"Uni..." Nepgear sighed softly. "Neptune didn't even do it on purpose."

"So what?!" Uni yelled back. "She's always so mean to you! She treats you like a servant, ignores you all the time, gets zapped into other dimensions and..."

"STOP!" Nepgear yelled, causing Uni's eyes to snap open. "First of all, Neptune hasn't been mean to me in over a decade. Okay?"

"What about what Plutia did to you?" Uni pointed out and she blinked as Nepgear practically screamed in frustration.

"Neptune has apologized I don't know HOW many times for that!" Nepgear snapped at Uni. "Not only that, but Neptune cried in her sleep about how sorry she was over that, did you know that?" She got up next to Uni and poked her in the chest. "Did you know that our sisters, Vert and Blanc all hate themselves over what Kurome almost made them do?"

"Huh?" Uni had a confused look on her face. "What do you mean? We forgave them for that."

"But they haven't forgiven themselves." Nepgear sighed softly. "The last time they were over here playing games, I caught them all with this look on their faces. The four of them looked really bothered by something."

"And what makes you think it's because of Kurome?" Uni asked her.

Nepgear sighed softly, "because Neptune talks in her sleep."

"...But why would..."

"They almost killed us." Nepgear shot back at her. "You think that they'd forgive themselves for trying to kill their own little sisters?!"

Uni couldn't answer that and she sighed. "...I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize to me." Nepgear told her, "apologize to Neptune when she comes home, okay?" She turned and walked away, "now there's things that need to be done, so let's go."

Uni sighed, knowing Nepgear was really upset. 'I'm really sorry, Nepgear, I had no idea that was going on with Neptune or the others.' She really had no clue that Noire was still bothered by what happened with the whole brainwashing thing Kurome did to her. 'Maybe I'm the lousy sister if I didn't know something like that but Nepgear did.'

It reminded her of the time she had accidentally been turned into a dogoo and Noire had been the only one who knew she was Uni and not a dogoo and how it had shown how Noire really did care for her despite Uni feeling like her elder sister was being cold and heartless towards her. "OH GEE! I really am a bitch!" She yelled as her eyes screwed shut in frustration.

Maybe that was why she had felt so close to Noire from the Ultradimension? After all, Nepgear had told her that Noire was really mean at times with her sharp tongue and attitude. Sure, it had been a lot easier to understand that Noire compared to her own sister, but Uni sometimes wondered if maybe she hurt her sister's feelings over the whole incident.

Uni could only move over to the couch and sit on it, sighing. "Noire, Neptune, Nepgear... I'm really sorry." She said softly to the empty room.

(-)

As she got to the office, Nepgear pulled out her cellphone and dialed a number on it. "Come on, come on..." She muttered to herself. "Pick up..."

"Heya, Gearsy!" Uzume's voice spoke up, causing Nepgear to sigh in relief. "What's up?"

"A lot of things. Is Neptune with you?"

"Nepsy? Yeah, she and Crosy are here." Uzume's voice was a bit confused. "Unless you're talking about small Nepsy, then no."

"No, I'm talking about the big one." Nepgear answered her. "Can you put her on the phone?"

"Sure!" There was some rustling for a moment as the phone was obviously switching hands.

"Yoo hoo! Nepgear! How's my little sister?" Neptune's voice came over the phone, joy in her voice. "Is Tiny Me treating you right? Do you want to come with me for a vacation or something?"

Nepgear mentally sighed and wished that people would stop saying she was perfect or try to steal her away from Neptune so much. She knew her sister was a good sport about it, but it had to bother her at some level. "No, Neptune's treating me well, but, um... Could you come back here?"

"Huh?" Neptune's voice was confused. "Is something wrong with Tiny Me?"

"She's missing and she's in another dimension."

"...I'll be there soon." Neptune answered as she hung up the phone.

Nepgear sighed as she hung up the phone. "...I hope that Neptune's okay."

To be continued...

* * *

If only you knew, Nepgear. If only you knew.

Okay, next chapter we're in Lastation! I promise!

So, I need to make an announcement. I'm going to be starting a new job tomorrow. So I don't know how that will affect my writing speed since I don't know the hours or days I'll be working. Thankfully after I get settled into it I'll be back to writing as best I can.


	34. Lastation

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

And now we're in Lastation! Finally!

* * *

Chapter 29

"Report!" A female voice broke through the air as several people sat around a long table. The room was dimly lit, the walls were metal and cold, the windows on the side were the size of a wall and a quick glance out of them would reveal skyscrapers at least thirty stories high or more all around the building they were in.

"Lady Noire." One of the men at the table, an older man in a blue pin-stripe suit, spoke up. "Recently there was a little... Rebellion in South Lastation."

The CPU gave him a look. "Mr. Badd, I do hope you already took care of it."

Adjusting his glasses, the man nodded. "Of course. I had my people squash it." He smirked at that. "It was pitifully easy."

"Good," she nodded at him, "I do hate having to go out there and bring order to the streets when you do it for me."

"Of course," Mr. Badd nodded to her and looked across the table, "I do believe that Lady Kei has something to say as well."

"Yes," Kei nodded at Mr. Badd as she typed some information into a computer, "sadly it looks like you'll have to go down there and squash some of the more... Uppity gangs, Lady Black Void."

"I hate that name," Noire scoffed at Kei, "seriously, my HDD form has red and white hair and I've got red hair, who came up with Black Void anyway?"

"There's plenty of black on your processor," Kei pointed out, "and you came up with it when you killed your elder sister three decades ago."

"Whatever," Noire dismissed it as she flicked her red locks out of her face, "I hate having to deal with those punks."

"Indeed," Kei nodded at her, "there's a regiment of troopers ready for you if you need them."

Noire scoffed at her and turned, her red dress fluttering in the air as she went to leave. "Just leave it to me. Where's the problem anyway?"

"Southern Lastation, the slums district." Kei answered as Noire nodded and left. "Finally," she muttered after Noire was gone. "I hate working for her."

"You can't blame her for being the way she is," Mr. Badd smirked at her and looked at the others at the table. "Tell me something, Singe, how are things going on your end?"

A man, wearing a red suit with slicked back brown hair and green eyes, who was almost as old as Mr. Badd, but unlike Mr. Badd, he had a full head of hair and didn't need to wear glasses, nodded at him. "Almost ready to go. One, maybe two weeks maximum and then we can begin on my end."

"Good," Kei nodded at him, "I look forward to your success."

There was a chuckling next to Kei as a man with long, messy red hair and brown eyes just grinned as he spoke. "And to think, it's all because of how good you are with people, Kei."

"...Keep talking like that, Azna=Leb, and you'll see how little flattery and seduction matters to me when it comes to promotions." Kei rolled her eyes at him as he pouted. "Anyway, we still need her, for now at least. Hopefully with the new progbots we have coming out..."

"Of course," Mr. Badd nodded. "And what will you do about the little CPU Candidate? What was her name again?"

"I believe it was Uni," Azna=Leb said as he grinned. "I think she's working on dealing with the more violent criminals that target the people of Lastation. Last I heard she was dealing with gangs that were starting to get rowdy and that haven't been squashed yet."

"We'll have to deal with her and her more... Rebellious and justice-minded nature soon enough," Kei answered, annoyed that several of the plans that she had put into place to keep things in check kept getting screwed up because of one overly ambitious brat.

"How pathetic," another voice spoke up and the table looked at the final person there. "I half expected Little Noire to be more... Interesting. But in the end, all she cares about is power and she can't even manage what little she has."

Kei smirked at the final person. "Not everyone is as good as you are at manipulating data, Anonydeath."

"Enough with your foolish prattling," Mr. Badd grumbled as he stood up, "I'll get my boys to take care of things on my end."

Kei nodded and smirked as everyone but her and Azna=Leb slowly left the room. "I really have to thank her for seeing my talents though." The boyish looking girl just chuckled. "If not for her, I'd be in those slums still."

"So..." Azna=Leb grinned at Kei, "you busy?"

"...I've got an hour of free time." Kei said to him.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Panting as her lungs burned from the exertion she put herself through, the girl looked around and slid into a narrow alley as three large, humanoid beings with sleek, dark chrome-colored bodies and green visors where their eyes should have been hovered just off the ground, beeping at each other while their sensors scanned the area. 'Damn!' She thought to herself. 'Progbots!' While they weren't the brightest and were easily tricked, they were utterly relentless in pursuing whatever they were tasked to pursue. Taking a deep breath to soothe her nerves, she pulled out a handgun and mentally prepared herself.

Before she could do anything else, there was a loud crash in the streets and the Progbots turned to look at what was causing the disturbance.

"Meow." A little white cat looked at them and sauntered off.

**_"Freeze!"_** The two said at the same time. **_"Disturbing the peace is a violation of Black Void's directive."_**

"Mrew!" The cat ignored them as it focused on a mouse that was scurrying around on the ground. Its body started to wiggle as it bobbed its head up and down in preparation to leap at its future meal.

**_"Violator has refused to comply,"_** the progbots said as their arms morphed into cannons. **_"Prepare to fire."_**

"Dammit!" The girl cursed to herself. 'I'm sorry, kitty, but I can't...'

"Hey!" Another girl suddenly shouted and the progbots turned their attention to the interloper. "What are you two doing?" The two progbots turned to see a girl with black hair that was pinned up against the back of her head, she was wearing finger-less gloves over her hands, a white t-shirt over her small chest, an open, sleeveless black jacket that went from her shoulders down to her knees, cut-off jean-shorts over black leggings and on her feet were a pair of boots that wouldn't look out of place for someone who was hiking in the woods or working in a factory.

**_"Protecting the peace, Lady Uni."_** They said at the same time as they addressed the CPU Candidate of Lastation.

Rubbing her forehead in annoyance, Uni gave them a glare and looked at the cat as it clamped down on the mouse's neck and started kicking the struggling creature with its back legs, killing it and shredding the carcass. "A cat knocking stuff over and looking for food is not disturbing the peace, now get the hell out of here!"

**_"Affirmative."_**

As they left, Uni rubbed her forehead. "What the fuck is my sister thinking? No, wait, I don't want to know." She couldn't blame her sister for wanting to keep things orderly, but she really wished that there would be actual people patrolling the streets and not progbots.

"Um..." Uni turned and slid back, two Uzis forming in her hands as she glared at the person who spoke. "Hey!" The girl yelled while pointing her handgun at Uni. "What's the big idea?"

"With how many gangs are down here, a girl can't be unarmed." Uni shot back as she gave the other girl a look over. The girl was wearing knee-high boots with long pants and Uni wasn't sure if the girl was wearing a halter top over her chest or if that was a sports bra as the girl's sleeveless vest hid if there were any straps on it.

"Why do you think I have a gun?" The girl replied to her.

After staring at each other for more than a minute, the two slowly lowered their weapons and nodded at each other.

"Impressed that you didn't shy away." Uni said to the girl.

Said girl just smiled at her. "Never point your gun without the intent to shoot. Always shoot with the intent to kill. Always kill with the intent to die."

"Wise words." Uni nodded, "though I'm not sure how useful a simple semi-automatic handgun would be against progbots." She knew how durable those things were, being walking tanks that took some serious pounding before they went down.

"Explosive tipped bullets tend to punch through armor like theirs." The girl smirked and gently caressed her gun. "And even if that's not enough to put them down, I can at least knock them on their ass and get out before they shoot back."

Uni didn't even question how the girl had those kinds of bullets, she'd be more surprised if the girl was packing regular bullets in her gun. "Well, see ya." She turned and was about to walk off when she felt the barrel of the gun touch the back of her head. "...Are you seriously going to try and kill me?"

"Considering you're the CPU Candidate of Lastation, I think I'd be doing all of us a favor." The girl said softly. "Your sister's policies are why everything down here is shit."

"I'm not my sister." Uni replied calmly. "And don't think that killing me would solve anything, Black Void cares less about me than she does about the people who live in the slums."

"If that was the case, don't you think those progbots would have ignored you?" The girl smirked when Uni jerked slightly. "But, no, I don't think killing you would be the right thing."

"Didn't you just say..." Uni trailed off as the gun against the back of her head poked her hard.

"Don't tempt me to shoot."

"Can I at least have your name?" Uni asked, still calm, "I'd like to know who's threatening to kill me this time."

"...Name's K-Sha." The girl answered. "Now you're going to do what I say and you're going to go where I tell you to."

Uni sighed heavily. "Fine... Not like it matters in the end anyway." She muttered as K-Sha grabbed her left hand and wrenched it behind her back hard enough to make her grimace in pain. 'Nothing but power matters, huh?'

It was a lesson that her sister had drilled into her ever since she had been born. How everything else was just an illusion and even power was fleeting.

'...Maybe Noire's right. Maybe there's nothing in the world but those who have power and those who don't.' Uni thought to herself as she noticed the homeless people around them ignoring them and the gangs just leering at them as they marched through the area on the sidewalks. There were several cars that flew by, but the streets were pretty deserted in this section of the city. "...Just shoot me already." Uni told K-Sha. "Either shoot me or put your gun away, I don't have any reason to run."

K-Sha was silent before letting go of Uni's arm and pulling the gun away. "You run, I'll shoot you, and I'm pretty good."

"Yeah, I figure." Uni turned to face her while rubbing her wrist.

The next thing K-Sha knew, she was on the ground, grabbing her stomach and coughing hard. Uni kicked the gun out of her hand and then grabbed K-Sha by her hair and lifted her up. "Listen up, you idiot, if you wanted me to come with you, all you had to do was ask." Uni threw K-Sha to the ground and crossed her arms over her small chest while K-Sha coughed a few more times. "I don't care if you want me to come with you, but don't threaten me with a gun, you understand?"

K-Sha gave her a glare. "Your sister..." A nasty snarl came to her face, "she killed all of my friends."

"Let me guess, your friends were part of that gang that was causing problems a few months ago that got their hands on some powerful weapons?" Uni shot back. "They had energy rifles, armor piercing bullets, missile launchers, EMP cannons and more I can't think of off the top of my head and got so out of hand that my sister had to come down and personally put them down, correct?" She scoffed at K-Sha. "Newsflash, those friends of yours killed more than a few dozen people, injured hundreds more and did billions in damage."

K-Sha continued to snarl at Uni. "You don't care about them?! They were the closest people I have to family!"

Uni raised an eyebrow, "you need better friends then. Go back to your real family."

"I would if they were still alive!" K-Sha yelled, tears in her eyes.

Uni stared at her silently. After a moment, she sighed and walked over to K-Sha and offered her a hand up. "Why don't I treat you to a meal and you can tell me about it then?"

K-Sha looked at her in surprise, but took the offered hand to get back to her feet. After collecting her gun, the two went to a local diner to eat and chat.

Unseen by the two girls was a red glow the shadows of an alleyway.

(-)

It didn't take the two long to get to a small diner that had apartments in the area above the building and a large window that showed the outside.

After ordering their food, Uni looked at K-Sha, who was looking disgruntled. "Okay, you want to talk about your family?"

K-Sha let out an annoyed huff but nodded. "Dad didn't have many skills, but he could lift and move stuff, so he was forced to work in the factories outside the city."

Uni mentally winced. While the factories weren't unsafe, the same couldn't be said for the areas around the factories. "Couldn't he get protective gear?"

"We barely had enough for food and rent when dad took the job." K-Sha shot back. "Mom was forced to do whatever she could to make sure we had money too." Uni nodded as she listened. "Dad..." K-Sha sighed and looked down in misery. "He put off his safety, said that he could do it while he saved up for a fancy apartment in the good sections of town. But..."

"I know," Uni sighed, knowing exactly what was going on. While the city itself had relatively clean air and water, the same couldn't be said for the rest of the country...

...It was a literal wasteland, destroyed by years of pollution and devastation to nature by the corporations that made Lastation City their home. Between the literal toxic grounds, the poisoned air and who knows what else out there...

...Uni knew that the fatality rates of those who worked in the factories outside of the city was well over ten percent and some reports had it as high as fifteen percent.

"If you're wondering about mom, she took her own life not long after." K-Sha glowered at Uni. "Your sister's policies... She's the reason for why I lost everything."

Uni said nothing as K-Sha continued with her glowering. She couldn't say anything. As much as she believed in justice and wanted the people to be free of the crime, drugs and other problems that plagued the populace, she was just one person and even if she was the CPU Candidate, she lacked any real power. '...It keeps coming back to power, doesn't it?'

If only she had the power to change things. Uni knew that if she did, she'd fix all the problems in Lastation.

To be continued...

* * *

And Lastation is a Cyberpunk city!

I wonder if this is what you were expecting.

Anyway, Noire with red hair? Yeah, original concept design for her human form was the outfit we know and love from the Hyper and Super Dimensions, but red instead of black and with red hair.

Also, don't be surprised if you see more characters connected to Lastation pop up in here. I know Azna=Leb is connected with Lowee, but I needed another character to help flesh out the world a bit. By the way, if you ever see me spell his name Anza=Leb, that's just an error on my part.


	35. Black Siblings

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

To Lord of Chaos: Cyberpunk is typically a dystopian setting. For some good examples watch Robocop or the original Bubblegum Crisis.

This is a short chapter, but we're still in Lastation.

* * *

Chapter 30

"How utterly despicable," Black Void muttered as she was engulfed in black light and returned to her human form. All around her were bodies of gang members, most were dead, but some were still alive, even if just barely. "Hmm?" Noire narrowed her eyes as she saw one with a purple Mohawk. "I know you." She walked over to him and kicked him, flipping him over and revealing his augmented body. "Didn't I kill you a month ago?"

"You've killed me three times." The man groaned at her before smirking. "Luckily for me there was enough of me to salvage for parts."

Noire scoffed at him. "Tell me then, who's your backer?" She asked and crouched down. The redheaded CPU narrowed her eyes as his eyes darted between her legs. "Yes, I wear red panties," she rolled her eyes and pinched his nose and lifted him up while she stood up. "Talk. Now."

"I dnno." The man spoke, his voice coming out weird. "I jus wk up dis ay!"

Noire narrowed her eyes and summoned a sword and put it between his legs. "Just so you know, this is a divine blade that can cut through a progbot without any resistance. What will it do to you?"

"I swer! Duno! Wk up dis ay!"

Noire narrowed her eyes at him and threw him over her shoulder and into an exposed trash can. "What the hell is going on anyway?" It made no sense to her why someone would bring a no-name thug back from the brink of death. "Someone has to be organizing these gangs."

"Lady Noire." A screen opened up and Noire turned her head to see who was calling her. "I found Lady Uni. She's with someone."

"Really?" Noire raised an eyebrow. "Might be interesting to see how my dear little sister is doing. Where is she?"

"Three blocks to the North from your current position, she's eating dinner with a girl."

"I see," Noire nodded and walked in that direction. "Steamax, make sure to get a cleanup crew out here, there's some discarded tech that needs to be recycled."

"Of course." Steamax replied as the communication screen cut off.

Looking back at the gangs, Noire narrowed her eyes and walked off in a huff.

(-)

A few minutes later...

K-Sha sighed as she finished eating her food. "Sorry for eating so much."

Uni rolled her eyes. "I can't feed you every day, but a meal isn't so bad." She looked at the stack of plates on the table, "even if you must have doubled your weight from that."

"Or more." K-Sha admitted, blushing. "I... I haven't eaten in a few days."

"Yeah, I can imagine how bad that was for you." Uni sighed and gave K-Sha an amused smirk. "Well that..."

There was a dinging at the door and a hush came over the diner as things seemed to stop and tension filled the air even as someone dropped a plate to the floor, where it shattered. Both Uni and K-Sha turned to look at who just entered and both of them stared in shock as they saw who it was...

...Long red hair done up in twin pigtails, striking red eyes, fair skin, an expression that told no one anything, a red over-vest with a white mini-skirt under it, garter belts that hooked down to white, knee-high boots, bare shoulders though she was wearing bridal gauntlets over her arms...

"...CPU Black Void?" K-Sha whispered, her eyes wide as she fumbled for her gun but was stopped by Uni, who shook her head and stood up. "Uni?"

"Just stay calm, she's here for me." Uni said and walked over to Noire. "...What do you want?"

Noire narrowed her eyes slightly. "Is that really any way to talk to me?" She asked and looked at K-Sha and then back at Uni. "Friend of yours?"

"No." Uni answered immediately. "She's just a beggar I took pity on."

"...You're lying." Noire narrowed her eyes and looked at the stack of plates around K-Sha. "Whatever, let's go." She turned and left with Uni shooting K-Sha an apologetic look and following after Noire.

Everyone in the diner sighed in relief. While Black Void was hard to understand, at least she didn't come there to cause them problems. Some of the people had recognized Uni as the CPU Candidate of Lastation, but they also knew that she only caused problems for criminals and those who were causing others trouble.

(-)

The two Lastation sisters walked in silence for several blocks. Thankfully they weren't bothered by anyone. Eventually Noire stopped, as did Uni. "What did I tell you about wanting friends, Uni?"

"...Friends are meaningless, bonds are easily broken, trust only ends with the back of your skull blown open." Uni replied to her. "Listen, Noire, I get it, the only thing that matters is power to you." She turned and crossed her arms in annoyance while Noire turned her head to give Uni a sideways glance and sighed in annoyance.

"Really? Because it seems to me that you were trying to be friends with her." Noire's voice had a hint of annoyance in it. "Perhaps I should show you how easily those bonds are broken?"

"Leave her alone!" Uni turned and glared at Noire. "Just because you're a loner who couldn't make a friend before you became a Void doesn't mean that I want to be one!"

Noire sighed softly. "Go ahead, make friends, but it won't do you any good in the end. When you're at your weakest, when everything goes against you, when you need help the most," she turned and huffed, "that's when you'll find out how shallow and selfish humans are."

"So why do you trust Kei and the others then?"

Noire was silent for a little bit. "Who says I trust them? They're useful for things."

"They're using you." Uni pointed out, getting a nod from Noire. "And you're okay with that?"

"If they stop being useful to me, I'll eliminate them." Noire told her. "Besides, the people need them anyway."

"...I thought you didn't care about people."

Noire scoffed at her. "I'm a Void, the only thing that matters is power. Now let's go home before I get mad." She turned and stormed off, with Uni watching after her.

"...You're wrong, sis." Uni whispered softly, "I can tell... There's still good in you."

There just had to be, Uni knew it.

At least, that's what Uni hoped for at any rate. The thought of her sister giving into being a Void completely was just too painful to think about.

(-)

Elsewhere...

Sitting in his skyrise, Mr. Badd pulled out a cigar and after lighting it up, he took some puffs from it and turned on the news. "Let's see..."

_"This is Abnes, channel 6 reporter, with the news."_ A young woman with blonde hair and a dark-colored dress looked at the camera. _"Our brave leader, CPU Black Void swiftly put another bunch of vile criminal down, protecting the peace and prosperity of Lastation."_

Mr. Badd rolled his eyes as he listened to the reports. "This will be useful for her." Being in charge of media, he knew that statements like these would appease a part of population, but also would agitate other groups of citizens even more. "The armed uprisings won't just disappear no matter how hard you try to bludgeon those people down, Black Void."

With the miserable conditions of life for the poorest of people, combined with an ever-growing military industrial complex and the outright corruption in Lastation created a fertile environment for numerous hostile groups. While Anonydeath notified them that such obvious ass-kissing from the news toward Black Void often made people more cautious and even more paranoid.

All in all, it was a very good foundation for revolution.

Sure, the CPU remained in charge, but at the end of the day, she was a lone individual and one who could be forced to meet the combined forces of well-trained and well-armed combatants and if the wrath of population continued to grow, she would face them and she would be all alone when she did so. "Even a CPU needs people to survive, Black Void. You really shouldn't forget about that…"

Mr. Badd knew that he, Kei, Anonydeath, Azna=Leb, and Singe were needed to keep Lastation's working properly regardless of what Black Void, who was obsessed with power and order, thought about it.

Things would be interesting moving forward.

To be continued...

* * *

Gotta thank my beta reader (the one who gave me the idea for the tentacle food in Leanbox) for his help on this part of the story. I enjoy Cyberpunk, but I'm not the best at writing it.


	36. Swimming and Entering

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 31

"YAHOO!" Neptune yelled as she and Rom jumped off the ship and into the ocean below. The group had spent the past few days near a small island, that was only a day away from Lastation, just relaxing and having fun.

Bursting out of the water, Neptune giggled as she helped Rom swim for the beach.

On the top of the ship, Linda shook her head as she watched the group swimming around. "Well, they're having fun."

"And you aren't?" IF asked as she laid on a long chair in the nude. Above her was a large umbrella blocking off the sun so that her skin wouldn't dry out and her skin was shiny from the rub down that she had gotten from Linda almost an hour ago.

Linda shrugged. "Never learned how to swim, I'll just stay up here." She walked over to IF. "How about you? It's been almost an hour now."

IF sighed and rolled slightly. "Got a knot in my back. Can you massage it for me?"

"Sure." Linda smiled and went to work doing just that.

(-)

Down in the water...

"BLUB!" Ram, in a blue one-piece swimsuit, pouted as she tried to swim, only to fail again. "It's too hard!"

"No it's not." Neptune, in a red bikini, smiled at her. "I know we don't have much time to learn to swim, but I'm sure that you can learn."

Ram was about to say something when Gust and Peashy both swam by at stupidly fast speeds, causing her to pout as she saw that Peashy had gotten a handle on swimming right away. "I wanna learn that."

"I got an idea!" Neptune grabbed Ram's midsection and lifted her. "Just start kicking your arms and legs, okay?" Neptune walked with Ram as she started to move through the water. "Okay, I'm gunna let go," she saw Ram's eyes widening in fear and shook her head, "no, no, don't worry, I'll have my hands under you in case you slip under, okay?" She smiled as Ram calmed down almost instantly. "Okay, go." Neptune giggled softly as Ram started moving through the water with no problem. "See? You're getting it."

"I am." Ram's eyes widened as she started to paddle around in the water. While she wasn't zipping around like Peashy and Gust were, she was still moving through the water and feeling free while doing it. "I'm swimming! I'm swimming!"

"Yep." Neptune nodded and smiled as she watch Ram swim forward before turning around and swimming back to her. "And do you know the best part, Ram?" Ram looked confused but curious. "I haven't been next to you for the past three minutes."

Ram's eyes widened and she smiled. "I...I'm swimming!"

Neptune giggled and sank her body into the water so she could swim next to Ram. 'Hee hee, works every time.' She had taught Nepgear and her daughters how to swim by this very method. Neptune thought it was weird how CPUs didn't know how to swim outright but had to learn. 'It's not like we're electronics that aren't waterproof or something, right?'

Not far away, Rom bobbed around in the water as she bounced off the ground while keeping her head above water.

(-)

A couple of hours later...

Chrome looked up as the side of the ship opened up and Neptune came in carrying a sleepy Ram and Rom in her arms while a sleeping Peashy was on her back. "Have fun?"

"Yep." Neptune smiled at her while Gust came in after her. "How come you didn't let Filyn come with?"

"It's not that I didn't," Chrome told her, "but rather Filyn's got Thalassophobia. She's okay in the ship, but the thought of going into the ocean terrifies her..."

"Uh..." Neptune had a confused look on her face. "Fear of the Ocean?" Chrome raised an eyebrow and Neptune giggled softly. "Come on, help me get these three to bed."

"Gust is going to shower out the salt." The short bunny girl said as she walked off to find a shower.

Chrome took Peashy off of Neptune's back and then Ram. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine." Neptune smiled at her as she adjusted Rom in her arms while walking up the steps after Chrome. "I'm a little surprised that the water didn't flood the ship with the door on the side. Must be why the door was up so high and there's steps to the door, huh?"

"Yep." Chrome answered her. "But Neptune, that wasn't what I was asking and you know it." Neptune sighed softly. "Tell me the truth."

"I think I'm okay, I'm not feeling down, depressed or anything like that right now."

Chrome nodded as she heard that. "Good." The two stopped in front of a room and Neptune opened it up. They put the little girls to bed and covered them in blankets. "They're going to be feeling gross when they wake up."

"Eh, just let them be that way." Neptune answered as they stepped out of the room and closed the door. "But, Chrome... Are you sure..?"

"Try to limit how many times you transform from here on out." Chrome answered her. "I don't know how fast or slow the transformation from Heart to Void is and I don't want to find out."

Neptune bit her lower lip softly. Images of Blanc, Vert and Plutia, with how they were; Blanc with her anger and terrorizing the citizens, Vert with her perversions and Plutia with her outright... If Neptune had to put a word on it, psychosis would be the closest that she could think of. "...Do you think I'll become like them?"

"...I hope not." Chrome said softly as she looked at the worried Goddess. "But Neptune, if you do..."

She nodded at Chrome. "...If I become a Void, Chrome... I need you to kill me before I go completely evil." Chrome nodded back and the two stood there in silence as they thought about Neptune becoming evil.

It wasn't something either of them wanted.

But both knew it was a possibility if Neptune was infected by Fearicite.

"Hey!" Compa suddenly spoke up as she came around the corner. "Nep Nep! How are you feeling?" She had a worried look on her face. "I know we took a small break because Chromey said you could use some time to relax before we go to the next nation, but I'm worried about you." The girl crossed her arms under breasts, "do you need more time?"

"I think it probably doesn't matter right now." Neptune said as she had her eyes closed in such a way that Compa and Chrome both knew that she wasn't really sure herself. "I don't want to put this off any more."

"Alright." Chrome spoke up as she turned to walk off. "I"ll tell Linda to get us going to Lastation." Seeing as there were no arguments from them, she left.

"Um, Nep Nep," Compa looked at Neptune. "I want you to know, I'm happy you're here."

"Aww," Neptune had an embarrassed smile on her face. "I'm happy I'm here too." Her eyes widened as Compa stepped forward and hugged her. "Compa? I'm still wet from the ocean."

"I know that maybe Linda, Iffy, Gusty and Mister Mouse might not show you what they're feeling, but they appreciate you too." Compa said as she hugged Neptune as best she could. "Iffy and Linda were really sad before you came around. And I'm glad you saved Rom and Ram."

Neptune smiled and hugged Compa back tightly. "You know... In my world, my Compa is my best friend. You're a lot like her." It really felt like that Compa and IF were pretty similar regardless of the dimension. She just wished that she could help this world's Iffy smile or at least not be so angry all the time.

Compa smiled, glad she could help Neptune feel like she was at home. At least a little bit. 'If what Chromey said was true, then Nep Nep needs this.' She didn't really understand much about the hows or whys of Goddesses, but she did know that if Neptune needed kindness and affection, she'd give it to her.

After everything Neptune was doing for them, it was the least she could do.

(-)

The next day...

"So this is Lastation?" Linda asked as they got closer to the landmass. She grimaced as she looked out at the sky. It was almost ashen gray. "The hell is going on?" Reaching over to the ship's communication device, she pushed a button. "Attention everyone, make sure that all windows and doors are shut down tight."

A few moments later, Neptune and Chrome both entered the cockpit and looked out the front windows. "So..." Chrome began, "is this like your Lastation?"

"No way," Neptune stared in disbelief as they got closer. Thanks to her eyes being really good she was able to see details that others would have missed. "It's... This isn't what my Noire would have allowed." The air looked almost toxic and she could see that the very ground was... Desolate. Even though Lastation City back in her dimension had some pollution problems and there was some problems with the factories Noire had across her country, she tried to keep the pollution to a minimum. Heck, the Noire from Plutia's world was even more strict with keeping pollution to a minimum. While the factories and warehouses in that world could be a bit on the disgusting side sometimes, there wasn't any major pollution problems.

This was so not what she was expecting.

As they flew through the air, Chrome realized that seeing much of anything was next to impossible. "...This is..."

Neptune looked through camera feed, since the ship had cameras attached to the outside, and stared silently as they passed over small towns. "...They're abandoned." She whispered softly as she saw the buildings rotting and one even collapsed as she watched. "This is horrible."

The three were silent as they flew further into Lastation.

After nearly five minutes, they came across a shining city that didn't seem to have any pollution near it. The reason they could see it clearly, in fact, was because the pollution seemed to have dissipated.

"...How?" Linda asked, glad that they weren't in that smog anymore.

"Probably some sort of bubble shield that regulates the air and keeps the pollution out." Neptune suggested, causing them to look at her. "Well, I think it was about... Hmm... A couple of years after I became the CPU in my world. There was a really big meteor that hit just outside of Planeptune and really smelled, so I helped whip up a barrier that kept the smell out of Planeptune. I'm betting this is the same thing."

"...Out of curiosity, what happened with the meteor?" Linda asked.

"Oh, I left it alone, the smell covered the other nations and they finally begged me to do something about it." Neptune giggled at their looks. "We weren't friends at the time and I thought it would be funny to make them smell that stuff for awhile."

"And here I thought you were a paragon of goodness." Chrome muttered, though deep down she did find it hilarious as well. "...To be fair, I probably would have done the same thing. I would have used giant fans to blow the smell to the other nations though."

"I WANTED to, but Histy said no because it would have taken too much effort to make fans big enough to blow the smell to Lowee and Leanbox. Lastation was behind us, so..." Neptune shrugged.

As they flew in close to Lastation, they were suddenly surrounded by flying vehicles on all sides.

"Yikes!" Neptune yelled, her eyes going white and blank. "Is this a Zero Mission scenario where we get surrounded by space pirates and shot down?! I don't have a sexy body suit for that kind of situation!"

Chrome gave Neptune a light slap on the back of the head. "Knock it off, there's probably some sort of reason for this."

The speakers of the communication system suddenly crackled to life. _"Halt or be shot down."_

"YEEP!" Both Linda and Neptune yelled, but Linda did as was told.

_"Do you have proper authorization to fly in Lastation airspace?"_ The voice over the communication device asked.

"Uh..." Neptune looked at the others, who shrugged. "Want to reply to them?"

Linda nodded and pushed the button to communicate with the person contacting them. "Uh, authorization?"

_"Insufficient answer, prepare to be eliminated."_

"EEEK!" Both Linda and Neptune yelled again.

"Contact them again." Chrome said as Linda pushed the button again. "Please hold your fire! We are unarmed and a simple merchant ship."

_"If you do not leave Lastation airspace in the next ten seconds, you shall be eliminated due to insufficient authorization."_

"...Is there any way to not be blown up?" Neptune asked.

_"Surrender."_ The voice replied.

"Very well." Chrome nodded at the voice. "We surrender."

_"Follow us to the station. Please note that any deviations on your part will be seen as an attempt to escape and you shall be eliminated."_

"Very well." Chrome nodded as she handed the communication device to Linda. "You heard the voice, Linda." Linda nodded and followed the instructions that were given to her.

As they followed the brigade, Neptune gave Chrome an amused look. "Est ce que tu est Française?" Linda gave her a startled look, wondering what she was saying.

"Non, Pourquoi?" Chrome asked, surprising Linda that Chrome knew what Neptune said.

"Car tu t'es doucement rendue et tu a embrassé la nature française." Neptune giggled while Chrome twitched in annoyance.

"Rend toi une fois, et personne ne te laissera l'oublier!" Chrome muttered under her breath while Neptune started laughing hysterically.

"Um..." Linda's voice was just as confused as her face. "What language are you two speaking?"

"It's the ancient language of the Goddesses." Chrome told her, getting a nod from Neptune.

"Though some people would call it French!" Neptune laughed before blinking as she heard a crash in the distance. "Gee, you'd think that the fourth wall would have crashed awhile ago, like when I met Chika."

"Uh..." Linda sweat-dropped heavily.

"Ignore her." Chrome muttered and rubbed her forehead. Privately she found it amusing but she knew that if Neptune had any sort of idea that Chrome found it funny she wouldn't stop with it.

"That reminds me, I should teach this to Nep Jr. when I get home."

"I should probably teach it to Filyn as well." Chrome nodded as they followed the flying cars into the city.

"Wow..." Linda stared in amazement at the skyscrapers. "They're so big."

"Bigger isn't always better." Chrome muttered, though she was surprised by what she was seeing. "Neptune, why don't you get everyone ready to go?"

"Sure." Neptune nodded and left the room.

"So what do you think is going to happen?" Linda asked Chrome.

"Probably something annoying, frustrating and just plain stupid." Chrome answered.

(-)

Several minutes later...

Sitting on a chair in a gray office, Chrome and Neptune both groaned as they filled out paperwork. "I thought this would be more... Electronic." Chrome muttered in annoyance.

"It was supposed to be," a young woman smiled at them helpfully, "but with our systems going through mandatory upgrades right now, it would take longer to make you wait for them to be done with the upgrades and then do the work electronically than it is to do it by paperwork."

"...Form 35 B, form 35 B, form 35 B..." Neptune muttered as she flipped through the papers. "Um... This only has form 35 A."

"Oh, and you'll need to fill out form 67 C and form 48 D." The woman happily supplied and Neptune and Chrome both flipped through the stack of papers rapidly, looking for those forms.

"...There's no form 67 C..." Chrome muttered.

"Or form 48 D."

"Nonsense," the woman dismissed them, "you're just not looking hard enough. If you don't fill those out, we can't let you go."

The two CPUs looked at each other and sighed as they went back to filling out paperwork.

"And Histy wonders why I hate this stuff." Neptune grumbled and sighed as she got another note to fill out form 22 E. As she flipped through the papers, she was grateful to note that there was an actual form 22 E to fill out.

"I'm sure she knows why." Chrome muttered and hoped that the others weren't too bored.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"WHEE!" Peashy yelled as she did a flying headbutt into one of the robot men, knocking it over. "Bwahahahahahaha! You're weak!"

"Ah..." Ram stared, her eyes white and blank while Peashy ran and knocked another robot man over while the others were yelling at her to stop. "Peashy, you should stop..."

"Bah!" Filyn muttered as she crossed her arms over her chest. "This is so boring!"

"Come here, you little brat!" Linda yelled and grabbed Peashy from behind. "I'm sorry, but her mother is the only one who can control her."

The man in charge of the station twitched in annoyance and looked at the other officers. "How come no one warned me that there would be a small child with super human strength!?"

"There wasn't any data on any of them."

"Someone make sure that their parents fill out the proper paperwork!" The man yelled and threw his hands in the air. "The last thing we need is Lady Black Void getting pissed at us because someone forgot to give them all of the paperwork!"

The others yelled and ran off.

Linda and Peashy looked at each other in confusion before cables wrapped around both of them and they were lifted up and away from each other while hanging upside down.

"HEY! Let Pea go!" Peashy yelled as she struggled to get free.

"Hey!" The others all yelled and stood up, only to find a bunch of robot people in the room with them and pointing arm cannons at them.

"Just calm down!" The man in charge yelled at the people. "Progbots, stand down." He was grateful when they did just that. "Listen, we can't have a kid with super strength running around and causing problems. So she'll have to be restrained until her mother comes back with all the proper paperwork signed."

"...Pea needs to use the potty."

The station manager just groaned in frustration.

To be continued...

* * *

If you were curious as to what Neptune and Chrome were saying in French, I'll spell it out for you. Big thanks to to a friend of a friend of mine (who wished to remain anonymous) who corrected the sequence to be more accurate.

"Are you French?"

"No, why?"

"Because you embraced French nature and quietly surrendered."

"Surrender once and no one ever lets you forget."

This bit is a few references in one. First, well, you all know the trope "Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys" (never mind that France has one of the most successful military forces in world history). Secondly, the "embrace French Nature and Quietly Surrender" is from Epic Rap Battles of History (Steve Irwin). And finally, the "French is the ancient language of the Goddesses" is a reference to Purple Lovers by DracoSlayer95.

The "there is no form 48 D" and stuff is a personal gripe I have towards filling out paperwork. You fill it out exactly like they tell you and then they go "oh, wait, you need this, this and this". It's like "WHY DON'T YOU TELL ME THAT THE FIRST TIME?!"


	37. Split and Search

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 32

"Let's see..." The clerk said as she looked over the paperwork. "Names, ages..." She looked at the two of them and raised an eyebrow. "You're seventy-five?" She asked, pointing at Chrome.

"Yes." Chrome nodded at her. "I age very well."

"Apparently!" The clerk couldn't keep her jealousy out of her voice. She stopped and stared at the other sheet and then looked at Neptune. "...How in the hell are YOU fifty three?!"

"Well, it was either that or I put a few months." Neptune giggled and rubbed the back of her head. Neptune could have put the age from when she had come into the world, she supposed, but that would have put her age in her early thirties, but she had spent twenty years in the Ultradimension. And then there was the fact that she had died and went to Hell before being kicked out by Lord Yama, and since that happened only a few months ago, Neptune wasn't sure which age she should put down. "Do you put down how old you are in your first life or the second one?" Neptune asked Chrome, who gave her a confused look.

"...You two are lying, there's no possible way." The clerk twitched in anger. "How?! HOW?! How the HELL do you look like you're barely in puberty?!" She pointed at Neptune and then pointed at Chrome. "And how come you look like you're in your not even thirty?!"

"Does it matter?" Chrome asked. "We've been here for hours already, are we done yet?"

The clerk sighed and sat down, looking over the paperwork. "Let's see, reason for visiting... People with you... Names of each... Ages... Special abilities... Duration of visit..." The clerk muttered off several other things and flipped through the papers before frowning in confusion. "You're missing several forms."

"And we told you," Neptune pointed out, "those forms weren't there!"

"I see," the clerk nodded. "I apologize for not believing you. Don't worry, I'll make sure to get you the proper forms to fill out, but then you'll have to fill out an entirely new stack of forms."

"...What?" Both Neptune and Chrome said with a flat expression on their faces.

"Well, we have to make sure that all the information that you put on this is correct." She smiled at them. "If you filled out the forms while missing some of the forms, then you might have inaccurate information."

Chrome twitched and leaned down to Neptune, whispering softly. "I really don't want to fill out those forms again, any suggestions?"

Neptune thought about it for a moment before her eyes lit up as an idea entered her head. "Fufufufufufufufu..." The clerk, who hadn't been paying attention, looked up and Chrome stepped back from Neptune as her eyes seemingly gleamed in the light. "I guess we should have put on those forms that we're the CPUs of Planeptune and Eden."

The clerk's face instantly went pale. "...What?"

Neptune had a smug grin on her face. "Uh huh... Did you know that Planeptune CPUs are known for being sadistic and having massive personality shifts?" The clerk went from pale to ghost white while shivering and sweating. "A~n~d..." Neptune waggled her finger and pointed at Chrome. "Eden's CPU likes to string people up and then chop them into itty bitty bloody pieces."

Chrome sweat-dropped heavily. 'Just because I did that to both White and Green Void doesn't mean that I like it.' Though she couldn't DENY that she had done stuff like that.

"Now," Neptune gave the clerk, who looked like she was about to mess her underwear, a look that would have made Kurome pause, "what would YOUR CPU do to you if she was annoyed like we are?"

The clerk descended into gibbering uncontrollably.

'...Kind of reminds me of Mini-Noire's robot boyfriend when I was teasing him.' Neptune thought to herself, remembering how amusing that had been. "Well?"

"D-d-d-d-don't worry about it! If you had just told us you were CPUs in the first place we would have done the paperwork for you." The clerk trembled and turned in a stiff manner. "Enjoy your stay in Lastation, please don't kill the civilians, and leave the rest of the paperwork to me."

Neptune smiled at her. "Good! See? That wasn't so bad."

(-)

After walking out into the hallway, Chrome looked at Neptune. "So what was that?"

"I just asked myself "what would Plutie do" and realized that she'd go Sadie on them and do that." Neptune answered her. As scary as Plutia could be when she was mad, her attitude was very helpful in dealing with situations like that.

"...Tell me something, Neptune, is there an Iris... Heart, in your world?" Chrome asked, her voice neutral.

"Not mine," Neptune answered and Chrome sighed in relief, "but she's from another dimension and we're friends."

"...You're friends with a sadistic monster?" Chrome asked, confusion in her voice.

Neptune sighed heavily. "Plutie is..." She trailed off as she thought about the things that Plutia had done to Noire, to Nepgear, to her other friends and even mini-Histy, though at least in that one it was just crumpling her bookmark. "She's a lot..." Images of what Plutia did to Warechu, Arfoire, Rei, Mr. Badd and others went through her mind next, "okay, so she's nice to me," Neptune sweat-dropped as she remembered the times that Plutia had tried to do lewd things to her when she was supposedly sleeping and Neptune had to fight her off as she didn't want those affections, "mostly nice to me, she's not too bad in her human form, even if she's a bit of a brat."

"Uh huh..." Chrome gave her a look that flat-out said that she didn't believe Neptune.

"...You know how I'm different between my normal self and Purple Heart?" Neptune asked, getting a nod from Chrome, "well, Plutie's kind of the same way. She's really nice most of the time in her human form, but then she gets really mad and becomes a terror when she transforms and either wants to beat everyone up or do lewd things to everyone."

"...You're not convincing me that she's a good person." Chrome answered before sighing. "Just answer me, would she torment people who didn't deserve it?"

"..." Neptune had to think for awhile before slowly shaking her head. "No. Sadie only punishes people who she thinks deserves it."

"...She's never killed anyone?"

Neptune shook her head. "No. You saw how I was acting? That's mostly how Sadie acts. She likes S&M stuff, not cutting them into pieces." Neptune stopped and gave Chrome a serious look. "If you ever meet my Plutie, you need to not try and kill her, okay?"

Chrome let out a soft sigh. "Very well, but only because you're asking. I won't try to kill your friend so long as she doesn't try to cause anyone serious harm."

Neptune nodded, she could accept that.

The two walked into the room where the others were at and stopped as they saw raw carnage everywhere with Peashy and Linda both tied up and Peashy was screaming her head off while Rom looked like she was about to murder someone, Compa was trying to calm her down while Filyn looked like she wanted to cheer Rom on and Ram and IF were sitting not too far away, Ram was looking concerned while IF was looking somewhat bored.

"...What the hell is going on?" Chrome asked, hoping to get an answer.

"PEA NEEDS TO GO POTTY!"

Chrome sighed and rubbed her forehead as Neptune walked up to the station manager. "This will be good."

"Finally!" The manager looked at Neptune and Chrome. "That little brat was..."

"Going to mess her pants and then all of you will have to clean her if you don't let her go right now, right?" Neptune smiled at him. The manager paused as there was something about that smile that bothered him. "Because right now, I'm tired, I'm in a bad mood from dealing with your friend down the hall..."

"Well, if the paperwork's finished, I suppose I can..."

"PEA REALLY NEEDS TO GO!"

There was a swish and a thump as the cords holding up Peashy and Linda were cut into pieces. "Come along, Peashy, I'll show you were the bathrooms are." Chrome said as she pulled her razor wires back.

Peashy nodded as she got free of the cords and ran out as fast as she could.

Neptune sighed and looked at the manager. "I know you're doing your job, but can we go?"

"..." The man nodded and sighed. "Yeah."

"Hey! Wait!" Linda suddenly yelled as she got free of her own cords. "What about the airship?!"

"We need to register it and..." The manager stopped as his phone started to buzz. "Now what?" He picked it up to look at it. "I swear, if this..." His eyes widened and he paled while looking at Neptune. "Ah heh heh... My mistake. Enjoy your stay at Lastation. We'll have the airship registered and you can come back and get it at any time. Just please don't use it to fly around and cause a ruckus."

"Sure, you're a great guy." Neptune smiled at him and turned to the others. "Okay! Let's get out of here."

"Finally!" IF yelled in a mixture of frustration and relief. "I've been bored out of my mind here."

"What about Peashy?" Ram asked, "should we wait for her?"

"It'll be fine." Neptune assured her. "Trust me, these things always work out."

As they walked towards the front door, Peashy came running up to them with Chrome following behind her.

"See?" Neptune smiled at Ram. "These things always work out."

(-)

A few minutes later...

"So..." IF began as they came out of the building. "Do we stay in one large group or do we break up into smaller groups?"

"Might be a good idea to stick together." Chrome said as she looked around and saw flying cars and shook her head. "This is rather advanced, huh?"

"Hmm..." Neptune tapped her chin and looked at everyone. "Maybe we should break into smaller groups? People might get scared of a large group of people wandering around." The last thing she needed was to deal with police every few minutes because someone thought they were a gang looking to cause problems.

"Gust doesn't care either way, but," the blue-haired bunny girl looked at everyone, "perhaps each of the groups should have fighters because there might be bad things out there?"

Neptune and Chrome looked at each other and nodded. "Gusty's got a point. So who goes with who?"

"And what are we going to do?" IF asked. "I'm not going to go looking for any CPU or anything. Looking around might be kind of fun though."

"I'm with IF." Linda spoke in a voice that left no room for argument.

"I'm with Compa, Chu." Warechu said as he stepped next to Compa.

"Gust will go with Compa as well." Gust said to them, "Gust can fight a little bit at least."

"Oh yeah, Gusty could do all sorts of alchemist stuff, couldn't she?" Neptune muttered, mostly to herself while others looked at her in confusion. "I guess I'll be with..." She trailed off as Ram, Rom and Peashy all hugged her. "Yeah, them." Neptune giggled softly.

"And I'm with Chromey!" Filyn proclaimed as she hugged her sister.

"So how do we stay in contact with each other?"

"Don't you have like a bunch of cellphones?" Neptune asked the burned girl, who glared at her. "EEK!" She jumped behind Chrome. "Chromey! Iffy looks scarier than a Demon!"

"...She does?" Chrome asked, getting a nod from Neptune.

"Uh huh! I've met Overlords! I met guardians of Hell! I even met Lord Yama." Neptune pointed at IF, "and she's scarier than all of them right now!"

Chrome sighed and gave IF a disappointed look. "Just give up some of your cell phones so we can stay in touch."

IF grumbled, but did as asked. "So, um..." She began after handing one to Gust and one to Chrome. "Don't break them, please?"

Chrome nodded and checked to make sure that they worked right. When IF's phone that Gust had started to ring, she nodded and quickly exchanged numbers with Neptune so that they could call her. "Okay, so... Everyone goes their separate ways, but be careful, okay?" Everyone nodded. "Don't antagonize the robots and don't try and fight a crowd that has larger numbers than you, got it?" She gave Linda and IF a stern look. "And above all, just stay safe, okay?"

The others nodded and left with IF and Linda heading East while Compa, Gust and Warechu went North. Chrome and Filyn also went North, but down a different street while Neptune, Rom, Ram and Peashy all went to the South.

Neptune looked at the others as they left. 'Stay safe everyone.' She hoped they'd be okay, but for now, she was going to enjoy her sightseeing tour of Lastation.

(-)

In a fancy office building, Kei was busy typing away at some stuff when a notification popped up on her screen. "Hmm?" The white-haired girl pressed it and raised an eyebrow. "What's this?"

As she looked over the information, Kei frowned to herself. "I see..." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a flip phone before dialing a number. It didn't take long for the other person to pick up. "Singe, you're going to have to step up your work. It seems that we've got more than one CPU in Lastation now."

"Very well." The man replied to her.

Kei nodded and smiled softly as she closed her phone to hang up. "Even with this new development, it won't matter." Everything was theirs for the taking. The last pieces had to fall into place, sure, but things were going exactly as she had planned it. "I wonder what you'll say when it all comes to a head."

She couldn't wait for that moment.

To be continued...

* * *

I admit, the reason I did this was so that I don't have to keep track of everyone at once.


	38. Handcrafters

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 33

"Hey..." A voice caught her attention and she looked up to see Uni sit down on the bench next to her. "How are you, K-Sha?"

The dark-haired girl gave Uni a cautious look and sighed softly. "Why did you stop me from trying to..."

"It wouldn't have worked." Uni told her. "Noire's many things, but she's not that easy to take out." K-Sha looked like she was about to say something when Uni spoke up again. "It was right after I was born..."

*Flash*

Uni rubbed her eyes of sleep. "Lousy big..." She stopped as the door to the Basilicom's living areas suddenly exploded in. Thankfully it was far enough away that she didn't get hit by any debris, but she yelled in pain as something tore through her leg and caused her to fall to the ground as blood came out of her leg.

"Go, go, go!" Uni heard yelling and looked as several people, all wearing identical dark clothes with masks that covered their faces, came rushing in, all with guns in their hands.

"Sir! Just this CPU Candidate here." One of them said and Uni stared at that one in shock.

"How do you, GAH!" Uni screamed in pain as the man who was over her slammed her stomach with the butt of his rifle.

"Shut up, monster! We're going to end you and your big sister right now."

"Oh really?" Noire's voice was heard and everyone turned to see Noire in red pajamas. Before they could do anything, she was bathed in a black glow and moving.

Uni could only stare in shock as the men in the room suddenly fell to bloody pieces. When the carnage was over, her sister was standing over her. "...N...Noire?"

Black Void looked at Uni with a cold expression. "I told you, I have many enemies. If you wish to survive, you need to be ready for an attack at any time." She turned her head towards the destroyed doors. "If you'll excuse me..."

"Thank you." Uni called out to Black Void, who stopped and scoffed at her. "Noire?"

"I'm not doing this for you, little sister," her deeper, more arrogant voice usually grated on Uni's nerves, but right now it felt almost comforting, "these..." she sneered, "maggots decided to attack my home. They can suffer and die."

Uni watched as Black Void flew off to deal with the invaders and grimaced as her legs started to hurt again. "Dammit, and I can't get to the phone to call for medical help." She knew she'd heal, but she wished that she could get the bleeding to stop.

Much to her surprise, less than four minutes later, several medics came into the room and found Uni laying where she was as she tried to stem the bleeding. "Lady Uni." One of them said as they helped wrap up her injury. "Just hold on."

Before Uni could ask what was going on, her redheaded sister came walking in. "Oh good, you got here before I got back." Noire yawned and turned to walk back to her room. "I'm going back to bed, the cleaning crew should be here soon, so get out of the room before they show up so you aren't in their way."

"Um..." Uni spoke up as Noire got close to her. "You called the medics?"

"Don't take it the wrong way, little sister," Noire gave her a cold stare, "I just don't want you bleeding all over the carpet. It's a pain to get blood out and I don't want the place to stink. That's all."

*End Flash*

K-Sha looked at Uni weirdly. "...It almost sounds like she cares about you." Uni nodded at her. "But... She's a Void! Aren't they completely heartless and cruel?"

"...I don't know with Noire." Uni said softly and looked down, worry on her face. "And I'm not sure what to do anymore, K-Sha. I know that she's a Void, I know that she's cruel and heartless... But... I just..."

K-Sha was silent as she looked at Uni. "...What's she like in private?"

Uni blinked at that question. "...She's kind of reclusive and quiet." She gave K-Sha a confused look as the girl stood up. "What?"

"I want you to come with me." K-Sha held out a hand. "I want you to meet someone." Uni looked at her in confusion as she took the hand. "I belong to an organzation called AZL."

"AZL?" Uni asked as she was pulled to her feet. "I never heard of that."

"Not many have." K-Sha said mysteriously.

(-)

In another part of the city...

"I don't really like those people looking this way, Chu." Warechu grumbled as he spied a bunch of people looking at them with various degrees of interest. He could smell lust coming off some of them. After being in Leanbox, it was easy to smell it from people, even if it was just a light fragrance compared to what he had smelled in Leanbox.

"Oh dear..." An effeminite voice suddenly spoke up, catching Warechu and Gust's attention as they saw an extremely handsome man in khaki pants and a white shirt with pale skin and short blonde hair looking at them. Or more specifically, looking at Compa. "I can't believe it. Look at you, such a waste..."

"Hey!" Both Gust and Warechu yelled as they got in front of Compa, much to the shock of the man.

The man jerked in shock. "Oh, dear me." He laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head. "I sometimes forget that not everyone sees the things I'm looking at." He pointed at Compa's arms. "My goodness, to use such primitive prosthetic arms! Whoever put those on you should be ashamed!" He huffed in anger. "I can't stand looking at them! Come with me." He motioned for them to follow after him. "Please, I don't bite, I run a small shop around the corner."

"Gust doesn't like him." The bunny girl narrowed her eyes at him. "Something about him feels wrong."

"Well," Compa giggled nervously, "I do admit Mister Weirdo is kind of unusual, but I don't think he's a bad guy, maybe? At least we can see what he wants." Both Gust and Warechu sighed but nodded. When Compa was like this it was hard to convince her to change her mind otherwise.

The best they could do was hope that this wasn't a trap of some sort.

(-)

As they walked into the building, Compa was surprised at what she saw. "This is... An arm and leg shop?" The posters on the walls and the machines made it seem like this was a place people could go to get prosthetic limbs quick and easy. The inside was nice and clean and it looked almost like a barber shop, just with some long tube-like machines next to chairs instead of barber tools and hair-dryers.

"Gust wonders if someone were to steal from this place, would that make it an armed robbery?" The bunny girl asked, an amused expression on her face.

The man laughed at what Gust said. "Oh man! That's hilarious! I need to remember that one in the future." He calmed down and looked Compa over. "Oh dear, oh my, I must simply ask to see your arms so I know what I'm working with."

"Um..." Compa blushed softly. "There's a big window here..."

"Oh, don't worry about that, it's one-way." The man waved her off. "Now, now, chop chop, I need to..."

"No." Gust and Warechu said at the same time.

"Huh?" The man looked at them in confusion. "But I need to see..."

"I'm wearing a long-sleeved shirt..." Compa pointed out. "The only way to see is if..." She blushed more. "I take my shirt off for you. And you're a strange man."

The man gave her a confused look. "Oh!" His eyes widened. "My goodness, you think I'm some pervert who would take advantage of you?" He put his hands over his chest as a pained expression came to his face. "I'm hurt! I'm seriously hurt!" He staggered around in an overly dramatic way. "No! No I say!" He waggled his finger at Compa, Gust and Warechu. "I am not such a pervert! My soul is that of a pure maiden and there is only one woman that I would ever lust after." He crossed his arms and huffed while looking away while the two girls and rat were looking at him in confusion. "But that is besides the point! While I do enjoy beautiful things, I am more interested in interesting things."

"Um..." Compa had a confused look on her face. "Interesting things?"

"Well, consider me curious." The man smiled at her. "Just HOW did you lose your arms?" He sighed at the looks he was given. "If the story's interesting and you tell me, I'll even give you new ones for free."

Compa looked at him with a look of distrust on her face. "I dunno... What if you try playing with my boobies when my shirt's off?"

The man gave her an almost offended look. "I would NEVER! While I do think that your glorious bosom is something that most men and some women would dream of being able to fondle, I, on the other hand, prefer breasts that more easily fit into my hands." He winked at them. "Besides, did I not tell you? In my soul, I am a pure maiden who has the hots for only one woman and you are not her. So, please, do not worry. I swear that I will not stare overly much at your breasts nor will I fondle them."

"...Gust thinks that it's nice he's honest, but..." Gust twitched as she ran over what he said in her mind. "That one bit..."

"Agreed," Warechu nodded and glared at the man, "I thought you said you have the hots for one woman? What's with that part of you staring at Compa's boobies?"

"Oh dear, I mean you no harm. I'll tell you what!" He clapped his hands three times and pulled open a drawer with some scalpels. "If I do anything untoward your lovely lady friend, you can use those sharp knives on my body and do horrible things to me."

"Well..." Compa slowly nodded and reached down to pull her shirt up and over her head, revealing her cream-colored bra and the full extent of her artificial limbs. "When you put it that way."

"Compa?!" Both Gust and Warechu yelled, though Warechu had to pinch his nose to keep a gusher of blood from erupting from it.

Compa blushed softly. "Well, it's not like it's the first time that I've had to expose myself to a random stranger since I got these arms."

"Wait, what?" The man stared at her in shock. "What do you mean, expose yourself to a random stranger?"

"Um..." Compa's face was turning more and more scarlet. "I can't remove these arms without... Removing my bra."

"Oh dear!" The man gasped, a horrified look on his face. "Just wait right there!" He turned and ran into the back of his shop, leaving Gust, Warechu and Compa looking at his retreating form in confusion. It was only a few moments later when he returned with a sheet. "Now, come over here," he motioned to the seat he was next to, "and we'll put this over top of you so you don't have to expose yourself to me anymore than you already are."

Compa, Warechu and Gust all sighed in relief and Compa got into the chair as the sheet was put over her. Gust and Warechu went over to Compa and helped remove her bra before moving her arms over the top of the sheet while keeping her now bare breasts covered.

"Oh my!" The man gasped as he looked at her arms, seeing the scars where her arms met the prosthetics made him narrow his eyes, "so, want to tell me what happened?" He asked as he instructed them to remove the fake arms, revealing the stumps that were Compa's arms.

"Well, Mr., ah!" Compa's eyes went white and blank as she looked at him in shock. "I don't know your name!"

"Oh dear!" The man gasped, his eyes also going white and blank in shock. "I never told you?!" The three shook their heads. "Well, you can call me Anny," he winked at them, "so, Miss Compa, now that you have my name, may I hear your story?"

Compa smiled pleasantly at him. "Well, Mr. Anny, it started when I was working at the Lowee Basilicom as a nurse."

"You're a nurse, huh?" Anny asked as he grabbed Compa's right arm and felt around the elbow, noting how the joint was still there and seemingly working fine.

"Well, I became a doctor." Compa smiled softly and Anny's face showed surprise.

"Ah, so that's why you were okay with the idea of exposure, even if it made you embarrassed." He nodded and walked around to feel the short stump of her left arm.

"I've had countless people see my boobies because of this." Compa moved her arms around as best she could while explaining things to him.

"So how did it happen?" Anny asked, genuinely curious.

"Well, I was working in the Lowee Basilicom for the CPU." Compa told him and Anny jerked slightly. "I treated injuries that happened when she got mad at someone. But she was really cruel to her younger sisters and I treated them. Eventually she found out and had me pinned to the table..." Compa trailed off, remembering how she had been bent over the table, her arms spread far to the sides and clamps holding them down. "White Void then took out her weapon and cut my arms off, leaving me bleeding and saying that I had to leave Lowee City."

"Oh dear, such a brute." Anny shook his head. "So you were helping her sisters and this happened to you, huh?" Compa nodded at him. "How horrible. I'll tell you what," Compa gave him a confused look, "since you were brutalized by a CPU, I'm not going to give you fake arms."

"WHAT?!" Gust and Warechu yelled at him and he held up a finger to his lips.

"Shhh... No no, you see, I was so MOVED by your story, of a CPU being so mean that she would hurt someone who looks so cute and innocent," Anny patted Compa's shoulders, much to the girl's embarrassment, "that I just CAN'T give you fake arms. No no! I'm going to give you cybernetic arms!"

"...Huh?" Compa, Warechu and Gust all asked at the same time, confusion in their faces and voices.

Anny sighed and picked up Compa's fake arms. "See, if I was giving you fake arms, they wouldn't be any better than this, they'd look better, but that would be it. Cybernetic arms..." He smiled at Compa. "Well, I admit, the process of getting them the first time is insanely painful as I have to put a connector plate," he grabbed Compa's right arm and rubbed the end of it, "right here, which means I have to do insertions into your arms to connect to your nerve endings."

"...Can I have some anesthesia?" Compa asked, sweating at the thought of going through such pain. "I've had to do something like this when I was in training and that person was in so much pain because I didn't use enough anesthesia for him."

"Well, I could..." Anny trailed off, grimacing softly, "but you see, honey, if I did do that, I wouldn't be able to make sure that the nerves were connected properly." Compa whimpered heavily. "Plus I don't want you to bite your tongue off and kill yourself." She nodded at him, sighing. "HOWEVER!" Compa looked up, some hope in her eyes. "I will say that the process is very quick, even if very painful."

"Gust has a question," Anny looked at the bunnygirl and nodded, "are you getting anesthesia mixed up with novocain?"

Anny tilted his head. "...Isn't anesthesia stuff you use to numb areas and block pain?" Compa suddenly started laughing and Anny looked at her in confusion.

"Sometimes it is, Mr. Anny," she smiled at him. "Most of the time it's used to make the patient fall asleep so they don't feel the worst of what you're doing, even if the body would react. Typically it's used as sleeping gas."

"Oh!" Anny laughed at that. "I have that! Why didn't you say sleeping gas? Anyway, would you like to start?" Compa and the others looked at him in confusion. "It will take about... Four hours, but when it's done, you'll have brand new arms."

Compa nodded at him. "Sure, but, um, how much..."

"Honey," he smiled at her, "for telling me such an interesting story and because I'm such a sympathetic person, no charge today. I'll just write it off as a business expense on my taxes."

"Gust thinks we were wrong about him." Gust whispered to Warechu as Anny got Compa set up for the procedure. More loudly, she spoke up while looking at Anny, "though Gust is surprised that this is being done like getting your hair cut. Gust would think that this should be done in a hospital."

"Oh, you sweet little cinnamon roll," Anny winked at her, "replacing lost limbs is so common that there are places that specialize in replacing lost hands in under an hour with cybernetics. I think it's called handcrafters or something." Anny waved his hands and got a breathing mask while slipping it over Compa's mouth. "Now, just breathe deeply, you know how this works." Compa nodded and did just that. "When you wake up, you'll have brand new arms."

Both Gust and Warechu were given folding chairs to sit on while they watched. From what they could see, it was mostly routine stuff, though both of them started to get upset as Compa jerked uncontrollably in her sleep, but they understood why.

"Hmm, this might be a bad thing," Anny said softly and took the sheet before tying it around Compa's neck and going back to work. "Okay, now then..."

Both Gust and Warechu were rather surprised that he did that, but when Compa suddenly jerked so hard that she jumped several inches off of the chair, they understood as she would have had her breasts exposed to the air and while Warechu wouldn't have minded seeing it, he wouldn't have wanted Compa to be so exposed and vulnerable if she didn't need to be.

Especially since Compa did it another seven times, the last one loosening the sheet enough that most of her breasts were exposed.

"So what happens now, Chu?" Warechu asked after Anny got done with the attachments before moving the cylinders up to Compa's arms and sliding them into position.

"Well," Anny said as he put the sheet over Compa again, covering her up before the sheet would have fallen off of her completely. "Now we wait. It just takes time for the machines to build the cybernetic arms properly."

Gust and Warechu nodded, hopeful for Compa.

"I do hope no one gets mad that I didn't opt to put any weapons systems in her arms."

"Gust thinks Compa will not be upset." Gust gave him a deadpan look while Warechu nodded and Anny giggled at them.

To be continued...


	39. Betrayal

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

A shorter than usual chapter. Sorry, just couldn't continue this one, you'll understand why.

* * *

Chapter 34

"So this is AZL?" Uni asked as K-Sha led them into an unmarked building. "Looks a little small..."

K-Sha smiled softly. "Oh, it's only small so no one pays attention to it." She said as she walked in and nodded at the guard, a rotund man who was laying on a couch, lightly dozing. "Anyway, come on in." She pushed a button and the door opened, revealing a glass elevator.

Stepping in, Uni looked out as K-Sha pushed a button and the elevator started to descend. "Oh wow!" Her eyes widened as she saw how large the place was. "What is this place?"

"A place that takes in strays like me." K-Sha said softly. "Hey, Uni..." Uni turned to look at her. "I'm sorry."

"Huh?" Uni asked before she started to cough and her vision started to blur. "Wh...What is this?"

"This elevator is filled with a gas agent as soon as someone pushes the down button if they don't use the key." K-Sha said, looking unaffected and Uni's eyes widened as she felt her body going numb. "It's just a sleeping gas. But everyone who's part of AZL is immune to it."

"K...Shla...Wh..y?" Uni slurred out as she slumped to the floor.

"Because," K-Sha walked over and leaned in close to Uni, "you and your sister are a problem that needs to be dealt with. AZL will help deal with you."

Uni felt her eyes tearing up as her mind started to slip into unconsciousness. 'Noire... You were right... I'm so sorry.'

K-Sha nodded as the elevator hit the bottom floor and several members of AZL stood there, armed with weapons and pointing at Uni, who wasn't responding. "She's out."

"She's the CPU Candidate, huh?" A redheaded man in a dark suit asked as he stepped forward and grinned at K-Sha. "Excellent work, K-Sha."

"Thank you, Master Enzo." K-Sha smiled at him. "What do you want done with her?"

"Move her to the lab." He said to the guards, who quickly moved to do just that. "It's time to see just what makes a CPU tick." If she didn't survive, that wasn't his problem. 'Besides, I'm sure that he'll be thankful for any data that might be useful for putting that redheaded attack dog on a proper leash.' Enzo chuckled softly.

K-Sha watched as Uni was dragged off and smiled softly. "I'll never forgive you lousy CPUs for letting my parents die." She grinned darkly as she chuckled.

(-)

Meanwhile in another part of Lastation...

"Well, well..." A male voice spoke up as several muscular men wearing leather jeans, leather short-sleeved jackets, boots, far too many piercings to be able to get into airports and weird hairstyles of all colors, walked out from a dark alley. "We got a couple of pretty girls here..."

In other words, the people were nothing more than punks in IF and Linda's opinions.

IF rolled her eyes and stepped forward, a smirk on her face as she saw some of the men jerk in surprise. "I dunno if I'm that pretty. See these burns? The discoloration? The scars?" She gestured to her face before running a hand down the rest of her body. "The rest of me's worse. Unless you want to see what a human body of jerky looks like, just leave us alone."

Much to IF and Linda's shock, the lead man laughed at her. "Oh man! It takes some balls to stand up to us like that." He smirked at her. "I'm impressed with ya girlie."

"I don't suppose you'll let us go then?" Linda asked and sighed as the men laughed at her question. "Stupid question, huh?"

"Yep." The leader said as his friends pulled out a bunch of guns and knives. "You can come with us quietly, girlies, or you can just..."

"Freeze." A voice that was obviously synthesized spoke up. The punks all paled and turned as they saw several Progbots walking towards them. "I suggest you use your right to remain silent. Before I show your punk ass some Lastation violence."

IF sweat-dropped heavily and leaned in to Linda. "...Is that thing... Trying to rhyme? At this time?"

Linda nodded at IF's question. "I guess things are a little weird here. We should probably try to steer clear."

Both IF and Linda gave each other a look of utter horror and wondered how they got caught up in the robot's flow.

The punks sneered at the Progbots. "This is our turf, bots."

"Wrong answer." The progbot said and before IF, Linda or the punks could react, the progbots revealed several machine gun cannons in their arms and opened fire, eliminating all of the thugs in a red spray that painted the streets and walls red with blood and ichor. "Targets eliminated, threats contained, innocents saved, Black Void's priorities reached, notification of clean-up crew confirmed, resuming patrol."

"The fuck?!" Linda yelled at the Progbots. "You just murdered them!"

"Criminal scum must be eliminated." The progbot replied and the group marched on, ignoring Linda and IF.

"...Let's go." IF said, her voice soft. "I'm not feeling good." Linda gave her a worried look, but nodded. Both Linda and IF knew that there were people who weren't savory out there, the Voids were perfect examples of that. Both of them knew that such people tended to do bad things if they weren't stopped.

But seeing people gunned down in such a quick, brutal and vicious manner had disturbed both of them in ways they couldn't even begin to describe.

It was one thing to see a CPU brutally murdered right before their eyes as CPUs were nothing more than monsters that needed to be put down. But seeing humans murdered like that? Even if they were scum?

It was troublesome to them.

(-)

Elsewhere...

"Hmm, this must be the nice part of the city." Chrome said as she and Filyn got off the elevator and stepped out onto the sidewalks. They were very wide and capable of having three or four people capable of walking side by side comfortably, but they still eventually ended and there was no street for at least fifteen to twenty stories straight down. Chrome shivered as she walked to the edge of the sidewalk and looked down to confirm that it was basically a straight drop down. "How do people avoid falling to their deaths?" She asked no one in particular as she turned while holding Filyn's hand to keep her from falling down when she saw a young child stumbling towards the edge while trying to get a ball that was rolling towards the edge just ahead of the child. "Hey! Watch...Out?" She had been prepared to go after the child when the ball hit an invisible wall and stopped. "...Well, that answers that question." She said in relief, grateful that there wasn't a bunch of falling bodies to splatter all over the lower grounds.

"There's a barrier?" Filyn asked and took a step towards the edge of the sidewalk. Chrome held her hand to keep her from falling in case there wasn't one. When Filyn's hand was stopped by something that neither of them could see, both of them sighed and Chrome let go of Filyn's hand. "Well, that's useful, Chromey."

"I suppose when you're up this high you either have everything inside buildings or you have some other way to keep everyone from falling to their deaths." Chrome wasn't sure what to make of this kind of set-up, but at least people weren't falling to their deaths so easily. "At least the Void of this place has this set up." She muttered and the two walked down the sidewalk. When they got close to the corner, they noticed that there was some sort of actual tunnel for people to walk through from one corner of the current block to another. "...I'm actually impressed." The people didn't look like they were being traumatized, brutalized, sexually abused or anything else that they had seen so far. "...So what's the catch, I wonder?"

Chrome knew it wasn't likely they'd find anything in the nice part of the city, but at the same time, she wanted to see just what was in this country.

Besides, while the slums often told more of what the society was going through, the nice places of society told their own story as well. 'After all,' Chrome thought to herself, 'those who think they're better than everyone else tend to live in these parts of a nation.'

She wondered just what she would find while in this part of the nation.

Filyn just found the transparent tubes they were walking through to be neat. "It's like I'm flying!" She giggled, getting an amused look from some of the others who were crossing as well.

(-)

At an unknown location...

"Lady Noire..." A male voice spoke into the communicator. "I have lost contact with Lady Uni."

"...Steamax..."

"Do not worry, Lady Noire." The blue robotic ninja said as his eyes glowed red. "I shall locate and ensure that no harm comes to her."

"You better. I'd hate to have to erase your personality and recycle you for computer parts."

"NNNGH!" Steamax stiffened as his eyes stopped glowing. "L-l-lady Noire... There will be no need to do that." His eyes glowed again as he relaxed. "I guarantee you that Lady Uni will be returned in one piece."

"See to it." Noire said as the communication turned off.

"I will not fail." Steamax said while nodding before seemingly disappearing from reality.

To be continued...

* * *

Well, this stinks.

Also, I couldn't help but want to do that rhyming progbot ever since I thought up Cyberpunk Lastation. If you saw the Epic Rap Battle between Robocop and Terminator, you know what the progbot sounded like. XD


	40. Diner

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 35

"So where are we?" Peashy asked as she, Rom, Ram and Neptune walked around a section of Lastation that looked kind of nice with all of the businesses with large, open windows and neon-colored "open" signs on the inside of the glass. The group had been walking for hours and Peashy was starting to get tired and hungry.

"The business part of Lastation, I guess." Neptune said as she looked around. "I wonder if there's a game store." She giggled at the looks that the other three gave her. "A CPU has to know what's popular with the people when it comes to gaming. Our power comes from people's faith in us and they express that faith by buying our consoles and playing games on them."

"Oh." The three of them nodded, understanding now.

"That's an interesting way of looking at it." A female voice spoke up and Neptune and the others looked to the side to see a woman with blue hair, gold eyes, on her left cheek was a bandage and on top of her head were a pair of goggles. She was wearing a rose colored jacket over a black tube top and black pants on her legs. "Though I don't exactly agree with you there."

"Um..." Neptune gave her a confused look. "Who are you and why were you listening in?"

"Sorry," the woman rubbed the back of her head. "Didn't mean to overhear, I was just standing here when I heard your conversation about a CPU needing to know what's popular. My name's Chian, I run a small parts store and a diner not too far from here, want to go grab a bite? My husband's getting off work and wants to meet there for dinner." They all gave her a blank look, "well, it's your comment about CPUs..."

"What makes you think you know anything about CPUs?" Rom interrupted, a frown on her face, "are you the CPU of Lastation?"

"Me?" She pointed to herself in confusion and shook her head. "No, I'm just a human, but judging from the way you're acting, you're all CPUs, huh?"

Neptune sighed and put her hands in a "T" formation. "Timeout. Tiiiiiiiime OUT!" She yelled, causing Chian and the Candidates to jerk in surprise. "One, it's VERY rude to interrupt people like that, Rom." The girl blushed and looked away, digging her toe into the ground. "Two, it's ALSO very rude to listen in on other people's conversations." She gave Chian a dirty look and the other woman, to her credit, at least looked sheepish as a result. "And finally..." She sighed as her stomach grumbled. "...Do you serve pudding?"

Chian laughed and nodded. "Yes, yes we do."

(-)

It didn't take them long to get to Chian's diner, which Neptune noted was almost empty. "Um... Not to pry, but how..?"

"Oh," Chian smiled at her, "it's a couple of hours from the dinner rush. We'll get really busy then." Neptune nodded, knowing that most places like this made their money when it was around lunch or dinner time. "Anyway, do you want just pudding or do you want some other food?"

"...Anything but eggplants." Neptune said, getting a laugh from Chian.

"Alright, daily dinner special it is with a heaping portion of pudding." She winked at them. "Just sit tight, it'll take some time to fully cook."

The group went up to the counter and sat on the rotating bar stools in front of the counter and waited for their food as patiently as they could.

"WHEE!" Which only lasted about three minutes as they all discovered that the bar stools could spin around unimpeded at which point they gave up being patient and quickly worked to make themselves as dizzy as possible.

Looking out of the kitchen as she heard a clonking noise, Chian fought the urge to laugh as she saw all four of the girls were either on the floor or had their heads on the counter to stop the spinning. "Not the first time I've seen this, but I think this is the first time I've seen four victims at once."

Neptune raised her head up and gave Chian a dirty look. "When you stop moving all over the place like a demented hedgehog after being fed one of Nowa's coffees I'll show you what I think."

"Owwie..." Peashy groaned from her spot on the floor. "I hit my head on the floor."

"Are you alive?" Chian asked, getting a groan from Peashy, "anything broken?"

"...No."

"Then you're fine." Chian smirked at them. "Don't spin in the chairs if you don't want to get hurt."

The four girls groaned as they climbed back onto the stools, but they didn't spin on them again after that. Chian chuckled while she made their food.

Fifteen minutes later she came out with several plates of various food and put them in front of the girls. She then went back into the kitchen and brought out some modest bowls of pudding for each of them. "Enjoy."

"Thanks for the food." The four girls said as they started to dig into the food.

After several minutes, Chian sat down across from Neptune and gave her a curious look. "So, what you said about CPUs earlier, I was wanting to talk to you about it."

"Hmm?" Neptune looked at her as she had a spoonful of pudding in her mouth.

"Well, for one, I never heard anyone, other than maybe my grandparents, talk about CPUs like that." Chian said to Neptune. "But they told me that was back before the Voids, I think it was... Sixty or so years ago now." Chian tapped her chin. "Maybe a little more. Anyway," she put her elbow on the counter and rested her chin on her upraised hand, "most of the people I hear talk about CPUs say how they're heartless or something like that."

Before Neptune could answer, Chian pulled out a remote and pointed it at a small television above her head, turning it on and turning up the volume.

_"This is Abnes with Channel 6 News."_

"Oh hey! It's the loli lover." Neptune pointed out, much to everyone's confusion. "Don't worry, inside joke."

_"Another wave of people killed by CPU Black Void has been confirmed in the South District of Lastation City. We would say that these are graphic images, but that would be redundant at this point."_ Still images of people who had holes in their chest or missing limbs littered the streets, causing Neptune and the three girls to stare in mute horror at the carnage.

Chian turned off the television and nodded at the girls. "Yeah, that plays every night."

"She... Randomly kills her own people?" Neptune trembled. "Dang it, why? Just... Just why? Why do all these Voids have to be such monsters?!" She could feel a bunch of negative feelings bubbling up inside of her while Rom, Ram and Peashy all tried to calm her down.

"Truth is, I don't think the media's telling the full story." Chian said, causing Neptune to snap her head up in shock and a small bit of hope. "Yeah, those were dead bodies and yes it was CPU Black Void that did it, but," she pulled out a tablet and tapped on the screen a couple of times. "Look at this."

"Huh?" The four girls all looked at the photos.

"This was taken from four days ago." Chian said and Neptune noted that the bodies looked very similar.

"That could just be limited animation budget." Neptune pointed out. "Plenty of shows and games reuse assets to save a ton of money after all. With that you can churn out new forty to one hundred hour games every other year without using up much budget at all."

"But this isn't a game..." Rom pointed out and Neptune shook her head.

"I know that, but that could be in play here."

"You'd think that." Chian said as she swiped to the left, showing another scene with the same bodies. "This was from a week before that one." Another swipe, "a month before that," another swipe, "and a month before that."

"Is the media using one image to make everyone hate Black Void?" Neptune asked, "does this mean that she's just lying and using the same image to trick everyone to gather energy for the Fearicite?" She had to admit, that was a rather brilliant move. Not that Neptune really approved of such a thing, but if they were people who were already dead and the media was just using the same images, just slightly modified every time, to keep people fearful and resentful towards this world's Noire, and Neptune wasn't going to believe it was anyone but Noire until proven otherwise, without needing a massive body count.

"I don't know if CPU Black Void knows about this." Chian admitted, "she never makes any statements about thugs and gangs that she takes out." Neptune gave her a confused look and Chian sighed, "down here in the lower levels, the Southern part of Lastation is known as the slums district." Neptune nodded as she listened in, "well, there's obviously a lot of punks and gangs in that area." Chian frowned softly and turned her tablet to flip through a few screens before turning it back to Neptune. "And look at this."

"Huh?" Neptune looked at the screen with the pictures in confusion. "Okay, but I'm not..."

"Hey..." Rom's eyes widened as she noticed something. "The one on the left has metal parts in his body."

"Cybernetics," Chian told her, "the one on the right is, from what people who do the digging can figure out, the same person, sometime before he got cybernetics put into him." The girls nodded. "Well, here's the weirdest part," Chian turned the tablet back to her and swiped left a few more times before turning it back to them, "the guy that seems to be in those images was a notorious thug who robbed stores, banks, killed people and a bunch of other stuff."

"...What's going on?" Neptune asked, confusion in her voice and on her face. "Is Noire using these people to do... Heroic things?"

Peashy, Rom and Ram were all, likewise, confused. None of them had any experience with a Void acting like this.

"CPU Black Void desires order in this chaotic world above all else." A male voice spoke up from the door and Chian turned to see who spoke, her eyes sparkling happily.

"Honey!" Chian ran around the counter to him and gave him a hug and quick kiss on the lips, which he returned. "How was work?"

"Tiring." He smiled at her and the two broke their embrace, letting the others get a good look at him. He was a little taller than Chian was, with thin glasses on his face, short, brown hair, brown eyes and was wearing a light gray suit with a gray tie.

"Um, Chian?" Neptune had a confused look on her face. "Who's this?"

"My husband, Ganache." Chian smiled as Ganache nodded at the girls. "Honey, I overheard these girls talking about what a CPU was and it was quite different than what I'm used to hearing." Ganache gave her a confused look but walked over to sit next to Neptune and the others.

"You know," Neptune had a look of confusion on her face, "for some reason, this feels more wrong than the Voids do and I don't know why."

"So, mind filling me in on the details about what you were talking about?" Ganache asked as he was led over to the counter-tops and Chian filled him in. "I see..." He gave Neptune a curious look while she gave him a small smile and the three girls around Neptune gave him a bit of a dirty look. "So, um... What is your name?"

"I'm Neptune," Neptune introduced herself. "This is Rom, Ram and Peashy," she said pointing to each one.

"I see," he smiled at them, "I must ask, what do you think a CPU is supposed to be?" He waited as Neptune gave him a confused look, but answered him. "A protector of the land and its peoples, huh?" He nodded at her. "That's very admirable. But I must ask, do you think a CPU is happy being in such a role?"

"Huh?" Rom, Ram and Peashy all asked in confusion while Neptune remained silent, looking at him curiously.

Ganache sighed softly. "You said it yourself, CPUs protect the land and their people, but did they choose that role? Wasn't it thrust upon them? And that's just how you describe it." A dark look came over his face. "It sounds like you think CPUs should be slaves to humanity or something."

"Um..." Neptune blinked a few times, her mind flashing back to what Iris Void had said to Chrome Heart during their battle.

_"Unlike you Hearts, we Voids aren't slaves to the whims of the people!"_

"That's not true!" Rom protested. "CPUs protect people because they love them and in return the people love them back."

Ganache sighed softly and shook his head. "Do not CPU Candidates coming forth disprove that? Even before the Fearicite, the CPUs of this world had to do all they could to keep the selfish, greedy and loathsome people happy."

"Uh..." The four girls looked at him in both confusion and nervousness, before he sighed.

"Forgive me, please. I'm a banker and I deal with some of the most despicable people imaginable." Ganache closed his eyes and took a deep breath before slowly letting it out. "This is something that's been passed down in my family for ages, but CPUs being forced to do what people want to keep them happy? What if those people want to harm others?"

"It's the job of the CPU to make sure to guide her people so they don't want that." Neptune countered, remembering how people in Planeptune had been shortly after the Console Wars had ended. It had taken quite a bit to get them to calm down, but things were good in her dimension now.

"And yet, no matter how much work you put in," Ganache sighed softly, "eventually the people decide to move on and demand change, casting aside their great protectors who sacrifice everything for their people. And all because they're bored of them. As if Goddesses are nothing more than toys that have lost their luster and they want something new and shiny."

Neptune gulped and shivered, remembering Kurome mentioning something similar when her predecessor had put her in that pod while brainwashing her. '...Was Kurome right?'

"And then there's the Voids..." Ganache sighed softly, a soft look on his face as he looked at his hands. "I pity them. They have to make humans suffer so they can gather power, but in order to do that, they have to suffer horribly first."

Rom, Ram and Peashy all stared at Ganache, their pupils shrinking as they listened to him.

"I find that people are worse than the Voids are." Ganache whispered softly.

"No way!" Rom suddenly yelled and stood up on her stool. "I'm a CPU Candidate of Lowee and I can tell you that no one hurt me at all like that monster did!"

"Uh huh," Ram nodded and shivered, "the people didn't like us at first, but they're starting to like us now that White Void is dead."

Both Ganache and Chian stared at them in shock.

Neptune sighed and looked at them. "...Well, I guess there's no use hiding it..." She started to explain things to the two of them.

"I see," Ganache nodded as Neptune finished her story. While she hadn't gone into complete details, having skimmed over the events in each nation, there were parts that stuck out to him, "you're being asked by a Histoire to save the people and the CPU Candidates from their fates?" Neptune nodded and Ganache shook his head. "You're a CPU, but you're being used, huh?" Neptune jerked in shock at that answer. "Even if you agreed to it, because I have no doubt that you want to help the people in need, the fact is that this Histoire is asking you to deal with the problems in this world when you should be trying to find a way home."

"...I would do it anyway." Neptune shot back. "Even if I wasn't a CPU, I'd still want to help the people who need it." Her eyes were sharp, determined and full of conviction. "Because it's the right thing to do."

Ganache stared in surprise as he looked at her and sighed, smiling softly. "You're like the CPU Candidate of this nation." Neptune jerked in surprise, her eyes widening as she gasped. "She's going on about righteousness and what-not." He sighed as a somber look came across his face. "I hope that she doesn't get consumed by despair when she realizes that what she wants won't work."

"Do you know where she is?" Neptune asked and Ganache shook his head. "Nerts."

"She tends to hang out on the lower levels though." Ganache told her. "Just wait a few days, she'll pop up sooner or later."

Neptune nodded and hoped that Uni, and like with Noire, she would believe that it was Uni until proven otherwise, was okay.

(-)

At an unknown location...

"Wakey, wakey..." A female voice spoke up and Uni groaned as she felt her face lightly slapped a few times.

"Huh?" Uni blinked several times as she tried to move only to find a few things were off.

First of all, she was wearing just her white panties and a bra and nothing else, which was making her blush. Secondly, her arms and legs were shackled to the corners of a table in a room. Thirdly, there was a lot of various pointy equipment around her that didn't look pleasant. Fourthly, she felt something around her neck that wasn't there before, and finally, there was a woman in the room with her.

The woman smiled at her. "Hello! I'm Gernia G. and I'll be your dissector today."

Uni stared in shock and horror at the way the woman pleasantly smiled at her.

To be continued...

* * *

YEEP!

If you remember in Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart, there was an event where Noire was stripped naked, tied to a table and Gernia G. tried to turn her into a giant mecha. Obviously Noire resisted and got out of there before being turned into a giant mecha.

Why yes, there WILL be more characters from that game. Because why not? The characters have a connection to Noire and Lastation after all.

And Ganache and Chian? ...Again, why not? They ARE from Lastation in the Super Dimension after all.


	41. Operations and Encounters

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

My schedule for work is looking pretty hectic. I dunno when I'll get a chance to sit down and write much. So updates will slow down next week. I'm sorry.

But then again, reviews have slowed down too. Have people not liked the chapters? Or is life just bothering all of you?

* * *

Chapter 36

"Dissector?" Uni asked, a bit of fear in her voice as she looked at the woman more closely. The woman had short, blonde hair, golden eyes behind a pair of thin-frame glasses and was wearing a white lab coat over darker-colored clothing underneath. "Wait, Gernia G.? Weren't you the one who disappeared a year ago when my sister raided your factory for making illegal cybernetic enhancements?"

"BAH!" The blonde grumbled in annoyance. "Illegal in what way? Just because your sister doesn't like it when people go crazy?"

"Not everyone's compatible with cybernetic implants!" Uni protested. "It's bad enough when their bodies reject something like cybernetic limbs. But you were turning their whole body cybernetic without checking to see if they were compatible!"

"BAH!" Gernia G. waved off her concerns. "It doesn't matter now does it? I've been working with some pretty influential people ever since your sister shut my operations down. I've actually gotten around that pesky," she changed her tone of voice to a more mocking tone, "hurr durr, you aren't compatible," her tone shifted back to normal as she sneered, "bullshit rule. But don't worry," the blonde woman grinned and put her hand on Uni's stomach and gave it a squeeze. "I'm going to find out what makes you CPUs tick. See just how you're connected to the Fearicite."

Uni grimaced at the squeeze and her eyes widened as several long, pointy objects came out of the ceiling. "No..." Her eyes started to water up as the first one was lowered down to her stomach and slowly pushed in, causing her to gasp in pain.

"Now, now..." Gernia G. patted Uni's stomach. "You're not human, there's no point in pretending it hurts."

"Just because I'm a CPU Candidate doesn't mean I don't feel pain!" Uni hissed as tears leaked out of her eyes.

"Aww, don't worry," Gernia G. smiled at her and pulled down another pointy object and injected it into Uni's stomach, just below her rib cage, getting a hiss from Uni. "I haven't even begun to torment you!"

"...Huh?" Uni started to squirm and cry out in pain as needles were slid into her hips, legs, arms, chest, neck and her tongue was grabbed by a tong and pulled so that it was extended out of her mouth before a needle was stabbed into it. "AAAAAHHHLLLL!"

"Oh, stop being such a baby." Gerina G. shook her head. "This is simple stuff, not even body modification medicine is being pushed into you." She grinned and leaned in. "Perhaps I should? I could turn you into a cyborg that has no free will." Uni whimpered and tried to squirm away. "Or maybe I'll do some sort of perverted body modification and sell you to some lonely old man that'll pay to have a cute little thing like you warm his bed." Uni glared at her and she chuckled. "But don't worry, it's just a nanite solution that'll go through your body and allow me to see exactly what makes you tick."

The needles were pulled out of Uni's body, much to her relief, though Gernia G. kept a hold on her tongue. "'ill u 'et 'o?!" Uni started to sweat as her captor frowned at her. "Uhh..."

"I hate you CPUs," she snarled at Uni, "your sister especially. She just HAS to be such a busy body, doesn't she? Harping on and ON about how things need to be orderly. BAH! It's because we can experiment that we can progress!" She let go of Uni's tongue and Uni put it back in her mouth, panting. "She demands order and ignores the people that live in the lower levels of Lastation, forcing them to either work or starve."

Uni couldn't say anything, she felt really weird at that moment.

"Oh, I should mention that I put a numbing agent in that concoction." Gernia G. chuckled, "not enough to make you stop feeling pain, but enough that all your voluntary muscles won't respond." Uni gave her a dirty look as best she could. "And you know what I really hate about your sister? She's in her forties and doesn't look a day over eighteen!"

'...THAT'S the reason you hate her?!' Uni mentally yelled in exasperation.

"Oh, wait, no, that's just an annoyance," Gernia G. laughed to herself. "No, I truly hate her because she's a complete moron." Seeing the confused look on Uni's face, the blonde sneered, "and so are you. The fact that you can't see what's going on around you. That you go around playing hero while your sister just deals with criminals causing some minor problems and yet neither of you bother to deal with any of the real problems in Lastation!"

'Like you?' Uni mentally asked and she really wished that she could say something out loud, because it was annoying to listen to someone rant when they knew nothing.

"Don't worry," Gernia G. chuckled as she pointed what looked like a gun at Uni, "this won't hurt a bit."

'I'm sorry, Noire, you were right, power is the only thing that, huh?' Uni was confused as the gun didn't shoot her, but instead bathed parts of her body with a light.

"You thought I was going to shoot you?" Gernia G. scoffed at her. "Pathetic. If I shot you dead that would mean I wouldn't have a test subject to do what I want with." She grinned and snapped her fingers. Uni couldn't move her head, the concoction was keeping her from moving most of her muscles, but it didn't take long for her to see a Progbot pushing a wheeled tray with things that looked really painful. "Let's see... Drill, scalpel, electric prod..." Gernia G. giggled at Uni. "I'm going to have so much fun!"

'Noire! Someone! Anyone! Help!' Uni screamed mentally as Gernia G. lifted up the electric prod and pushed a button, causing it to crackle with power. When it was jabbed into her stomach, she let out a slurred scream as her body spasmed and thrashed uncontrollably. But she couldn't move thanks to the manacles holding her down.

Gernia G. looked to the side and nodded. "Interesting, so that's how you draw upon the Fearicite, huh?" She pulled the electric prod away from Uni, who slumped down, panting hard as she tried to catch her breath. "Excellent. I'll send this to Lord Enzo and Sernge and we'll be able to finally put that bitch in her place."

'Enzo? Sernge?' Uni was a little out of it, but those names sounded similar to two people she knew.

"Awww..." Gernia G. pouted at Uni. "If you behave, maybe we'll let you live while we use your sister how we want." She smirked at Uni. "If you were wondering why we didn't need that much from you, it's simple, we already have a ton of data from scanning your sister whenever she becomes Black Void."

'Dammit, what are they going to do to Noire?'

"Then again," Gernia G. looked at Uni and chuckled, "your sister is old hash at this point. Perhaps we'll force you to become a Void so you can kill her and we'll have you as a loyal attack dog?"

'No! Don't!' Uni mentally protested and cried.

"Alas, I don't make the final decisions." Gernia G. shook her head. "Well, have fun." She patted Uni's stomach and walked off with the Progbot, leaving the CPU Candidate in the room all alone.

When she turned the lights off and closed the door behind her, Uni mentally whimpered. 'All alone and no one to help me.'

_"Go ahead, make friends, but it won't do you any good in the end. When you're at your weakest, when everything goes against you, when you need help the most, that's when you'll find out how shallow and selfish humans are."_

'Noire...' Tears fell from Uni's eyes. 'You were right.'

(-)

Elsewhere in Lastation...

"Nnngh..."

"Hey, she's waking up." A familiar female voice caught her attention as she slowly sat up and put her right hand on her head. "Compa, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I..." Compa stopped speaking as she lowered her arm and stared at her right hand. "I... I have a hand?" Sure, it was metal and chrome-colored, but it was sleek and Compa could move it around without too much trouble. She sat up and her sheet came off, revealing that her bra had been put back on sometime before she had woken up.

"Oh honey!" Anny smiled happily as he looked at his work. "I'm so happy right now!" His smile faded a bit. "That being said, I really suggest you take time to get used to your new hands before you do something delicate, like shaking someone's hand or getting intimate with your lover."

Compa blushed heavily. "I don't have a lover, Mr. Anny." Anny jerked in surprise as he stared at her. "I, um... Never found time?"

Warechu mentally sighed, but he knew better than to argue the point. Even if he wanted to, he could never be Compa's lover. 'This sucks, I wish that we could but we're not even the same species.'

"Oh, well, color me surprised!" Anny had an astounded look on his face. "Trust me, if you EVER want some guys or gals to hook up with," he reached into his pocket and pulled out a card, "give me a call, I know PLENTY of people who would LOVE to have a cutie..." He trailed off as he heard a ringing coming from the back. "Oh dear, I have to go take that. Why don't all of you just go and have a nice rest of your day?"

"Sure thing, Mr. Anny!" Compa said as she put her shirt back on for the first time in hours and her eyes watered up with how easy it was. "This is so cool! I have roboarms now!"

"Gust thanks you," the bunny girl said as she bowed to Anny while she, Compa and Warechu left.

After seeing them off, Anny walked into the back and pushed a button, which dimmed the lights. "This had better be important." He said as he answered the phone.

"About fucking time you answered, Anonydeath." Kei snarled at him over the phone.

"What's so important that you would call me when you know I'm at work?"

"You never have customers, you're always using that time to peep on me, the CPU and whomever else you want." Kei shot back.

"Well, today I actually had a customer. Cute girl, lost her arms awhile ago, so I gave her cybernetic replacements."

"...She told you a sob story while having big boobs, didn't she?"

Anonydeath gasped, his eyes wide. "Why I NEVER! Okay, it's true, but..."

"Can it! Listen! Turns out there's a couple CPUs in Lastation." Kei said and Anonydeath stilled, his pupils shrinking. "Planeptune and Eden's CPUs... Turns out that Azna=Leb just got a bunch of data from the bitch's little bratty sister."

"So..." Anonydeath began. "What's..."

Kei chuckled heavily. "I think we need to... Ensure that Black Void meets these CPUs, don't you? I'll send the data to your suit, you find them and I'll handle the rest."

"Of course." Anonydeath said as he reached down and touched his belt. A moment later he was covered in his pink and green power armor. "Aaaah! I feel naked without this suit on."

"You aren't Azna=Leb, so don't bother with pickup lines."

Anonydeath shook his head. "Kei, honey, you're cute, but totally not my type."

"...I thought you were... You know... Queer?" Kei asked, confusion in her voice.

"I may be queer, but let me lay it straight for you... White hair doesn't really do it for me. Plus, your attitude? Totally not what I'd want in a partner. You're too serious and..."

"Alright, now that we've established that we're not compatible with each other, I want you to go over this data and find these two CPUs. They should be in their human forms."

"Fine, fine," Anonydeath sighed as the images were forwarded to him. "I'll see about finding them."

"See that you succeed." Kei said as she cut the line.

(-)

In another part of Lastation, lower levels...

Neptune bit her lip softly as she thought about the conversation that she had with Ganache and Chian. She was walking through Lastation with Peashy, Rom and Ram, her mind anywhere but where she was. 'CPUs aren't what Ganache and Chian thinks. I want to help the people, I know I do.'

_"You should really stop lying to yourself, you know."_ A familiar voice echoed in her mind and Neptune's eyes widened and her pupils shrank as the everything around her turned black, save for her. But what made her pupils shrink was the person in front of her.

"...It... It can't be..." Neptune trembled as she saw the person in front of her. That cool demeanor, that outfit... "How?"

"Is that really what you should say to me?" The person asked while smirking at Neptune. "It's been so long, surely you've missed me, Nepsy."

"Kurome... Why are you here?" Neptune asked the blue-haired CPU.

Kurome just gave her a cool smile.

To be continued...

* * *

Things just went from bad to worse, didn't they?


	42. Infiltration

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

So I don't know how my update schedule will be this week. I'll try to keep posting updates, but no guarantee when I will. Just keep an eye out.

* * *

Chapter 37

"Aww, come on, Nepsy," Kurome gave her a hurt look, "it's been years since we last saw each other and this is how you greet me?" She sighed at the angry look Neptune gave her. "Come on, aren't you happy to see me?"

"You brainwashed me, used me and my friends to power Dark CPUs and you tried to have me kill my sister." Neptune shot back. "Of course I'm not happy to see you!"

Kurome raised an eyebrow and gave her a curious look. "Interesting that you would still hold this over me."

"Wait a moment!" Neptune pointed at her. "How are you here?! You're dead!"

"Am I?" Kurome asked in amusement. "I'm sure that you saw my body dissolve then?"

"Well, no, I wasn't there, but Uzume was and she told me that you died!" Neptune shot back at her.

Kurome chuckled softly. "Ah, Nepsy, Nepsy, Nepsy... You really believe her?" She shook her head and held up a hand when Neptune looked like she was about to argue the point. "It doesn't matter, does it?"

The next thing Neptune knew, Kurome was up next to her and Neptune's face paled as she saw power symbols in Kurome's eyes.

But they were upside down and black.

"...ne!" A voice that was distant suddenly spoke up and Neptune could have sworn that the darkness, the background and even Kurome all shattered in that moment. "...tune?" The voice was getting closer and Neptune blinked several times and rubbed her eyes as the scenery changed from pitch black to the cityscape that she had been in before. "Big Sis Neptune!"

Neptune blinked several times and gasped as she realized that she wasn't staring at Kurome but rather she was surrounded by Rom, Ram and Peashy, all of them were looking at her in concern. "Uh... How long was I out?"

"Not long," Rom answered her and grabbed her hand, giving it a small squeeze, "but you suddenly stopped moving and weren't reacting. What happened?"

"I..." Neptune sighed softly and shook her head. "Sorry," she rubbed the back of her head, "I thought I saw a bad guy that I thought was dead and..." Neptune trailed off and decided that they didn't need to know about Kurome, since the chance of Dark CPUs and the Zero Dimension happening in this dimension had to be really low. "Don't worry, even if we meet the bad guy from my world that doesn't mean that they'll be a bad guy in this one. After all, Chrome's a bad guy in my world."

Rom frowned lightly at hearing that. "Um... Big Sis... Are we..?"

Neptune shook her head and rubbed Rom's head, smiling. "Nah, you, Ram and P-ko are all good guys even in my world." Rom smiled and Neptune could feel her own happiness increase slightly from that. "So... What should we do? I don't know if we're going to find anything today."

"Can we keep walking?" Ram asked as she and Peashy slid up to Neptune's side. "I like this."

"Sure." Neptune smiled at her.

(-)

At the Basilicom...

Standing on the top floor of the Basilicom, Noire narrowed her eyes as she looked out at city. '...Where are you, Uni?' She could go out there herself and look for Uni, but she knew that doing so would catch unwanted attention. "I told you that you couldn't trust humans..." Noire trailed off as memories of what happened when she was a CPU Candidate entered her mind.

*Flash*

"Hey," Noire, who had dark hair and was wearing dark pants and tube top with a vest over her shoulders, smiled at a pair of teenagers who were wearing dirty clothes. "I told you I'd be back." The three were meeting at a bench on the lower levels of Lastation in the Northern district.

"Yeah." The two girls smiled at her. One of them was a girl with white hair, dark skin, eyes that were red like Noire's, but she had cat ears and a cat tail, which Noire thought was neat. The other girl was slightly smaller and had fair skin, blue eyes and pink hair done up in twin pigtails.

"Um, so... Moru, Resta..." Noire began slowly as she looked at each of the girls, "what do you want to do today?"

"Well," Moru smiled at Noire, "want to come with us? We made some new friends while you were busy!"

"I'm sure they'll love you too." Resta smiled at her.

Noire smiled, the thought of more friends seemed great to her. "Sure!"

(-)

It was nearly an hour later when Noire found herself in the slums part of Lastation. While she was certain she could handle herself against the thugs that made this area their home, it didn't mean that she felt nice down in this part of the city. "So... Moru, Resta... Where are we going?"

"Just to this place right over here." Moru pointed to a small outdoor coffee shop. "I'm, uh, a little thirsty."

"I could go for something myself." Noire muttered. "Never had coffee before." She blinked as Resta touched her hand and smiled at her, causing her to blush.

"Don't worry..." Resta's smile was rather friendly, "we'll get you something good."

Noire nodded and walked over to the coffee shop with them. "Why don't you order for me?" She asked Moru. "I'll pay for it."

"Sure!" The white-haired catgirl smiled at Noire and spoke to the server quickly. Noire turned and looked off to the side, looking around how dirty and dingy the place was, not to mention the level of... Tension that seemed to be in the air.

"With all these gangs and criminals around here, how does anyone down here stay in business?" Noire asked and she blinked as she felt a tug on her pants. Turning to see Resta, she looked at the smaller girl in confusion. "Yes?"

"The gangs and criminals don't bother the food businesses down here because everyone has to eat, right?" Resta asked, getting a nod from Noire, "so they don't cause problems for the food places and anyone who tries anything gets shanked in the dick!"

Noire sweat-dropped at hearing those words from a little girl. "Um... Aren't you too young..?"

"...Mom makes money by walking the streets." Resta said and Noire winced at that. "Plus I know Lady Ryuka and I was offered a job to work for her."

Noire couldn't say anything to that. Ryuka was one of the leaders of the larger criminal gangs in Lastation. And as much as Noire wanted to go in there and deal with her, she had no proof that the woman was doing anything outright illegal. "By work for her, you mean..?"

"As one of her night ladies." Resta smiled brightly. "It'll be better than sleeping on the streets." Noire wanted to protest, she really did, but she also knew that people needed to work if they wanted to eat. Even if that work was... Less than desirable.

"Here you go." Moru said as she handed Noire a drink. "This'll knock your socks off."

"I doubt that." Noire smirked as she took the drink and took a big gulp right away. "This isn't bad." Noire could at least appreciate a good drink, even if it wasn't something she ever had before. It was then that she noticed something odd. "Hey, where are your drinks?"

"Yeah, they're..." Moru trailed off before grinning. "Not coming. You're such an idiot."

Before Noire could ask what she meant by that she started to feel rather weak as her body started to go numb. "What did..?" She asked as her drink slipped out of her hand and crashed to the ground below.

Resta started giggling. "Man, our information was right. You really will believe any sob story. We're going to get so much money when we sell you to Lady Ryuka."

Noire couldn't say anything as she slumped to the ground and passed out.

"Don't worry," Moru smiled at her, "you'll be treated right and trained really well."

*End Flash*

Noire narrowed her eyes as the memory ended. After recovering from whatever drug that those two had given her, as they had clearly underestimated how fast a CPU Candidate could recover from things like that, Noire had thanked them for such an important lesson...

Before ending their lives for what they tried to do to her.

Noire let loose a soft sigh. 'Uni. I don't...' There was a buzzing into her office and she turned to the doors. "What?"

The door opened and Kei popped her head in. "Lady Black Void, are you busy?" She chuckled at the look that Noire gave her. "My apologies, but I thought you should know something." She walked into the room with a folder under her arms. "It seems that the CPUs of Planeptune and Eden are in the nation." Noire raised an eyebrow and took the folder from Kei. "We're not certain what they're here for, but we're tracking them right now."

"...How come they weren't put under immediate observation? And why am I only hearing about this now?" Noire asked, her voice ice cold and Kei held up her hands.

"Well, your sister went missing right about the same time that we discovered that these two were in Lastation. If I had to guess, it would seem that they were behind your sister's kidnapping."

"...Really?" Noire asked as she opened the folder and looked at the picture of a girl with short purple hair and a woman with long silver hair. "What are their names?"

"The one with purple hair is Neptune while the one with silver hair is known as Chrome." Kei answered her. "As soon as we have a lock on their locations I will let you know."

"You better." Noire said while glaring daggers at the pictures. "If that's all, get out of here before I vent my frustrations out on you."

"Yes, thank you." Kei bowed before turning and leaving the room. As she got out of the room and closed the door, she smirked to herself, pulled out a flip phone and dialed a number. "Singe? It's me. When will everything be ready? Two days? Great. I'll keep the dumb bitch chasing her tail until we're ready to put the collar and leash on her."

Kei smirked as she closed the flip phone and walked to her desk. 'Soon... This will all be ours.'

(-)

Looking at a nondescript building, Steamax, who was standing on the top of a building not far away, narrowed his eyes. "It's not a large building on top, but..." His vision changed to a mixture of X-ray and thermal scanning and saw to his surprise that the building was mostly underground. "If I was a betting robot, this is where Lady Uni would be held." He jumped into the air and disappeared.

Unseen to everyone, he entered the AZL building and ended up in front of the security guard at the front.

"Looking to join AZL?" The guard asked while not even bothering to look up. "If so, elevator's in the back."

"And if I wasn't looking to join?" Steamax asked and the guard looked up at him and shrugged, much to the ninja robot's confusion.

"Then either you came here by accident and you'll be dealt with or you came here to cause problems. Either way, not my job to worry about it. I get paid to sit here on my ass and do nothing."

Steamax looked at him and lashed out with a kick that the security guard dodged by jumping into the air and landing in front of the hallway to the elevator. "Do not try to fool me. I saw how tense your muscles were and I can see the adrenaline that's rushing through your body even before you jumped that attack."

"Damn, I need to practice being calm more often then." The guard smirked and pulled out a shock baton. "Guess I'll have to do this the hard way then."

"Alas, I have no time to play with you." Steamax said as he crouched down and jerked forward so fast that he was past the guard in a moment. Before the guard could figure out what happened, he let out a scream as the arm holding the shock baton was removed from his body. "If Lady Uni was not in danger, I would have spent more time testing you."

"That stupid looking girl that K-Sha brought in?" The guard asked in pain. "She's either dead and dissected or she's being tested right now. Maybe she's undergoing body modification and..."

Whatever more he was about to say was lost as Steamax was gone as soon as he mentioned that Uni might be dead.

(-)

Bursting through the elevator and running down the glass shaft, Steamax got a good look around the place. "This place is huge, easily several warehouses in size. How did they fit this underground?" It was mostly open and he could see that it was used for people to train in combat in one area and in another area there were Progbots being built. "Impossible, I have detailed files on every building in Lastation and I know all the locations where Progbots are being built, none of this matches my data."

Either someone had messed with his data, which he could admit, as much as he hated the thought, was a possibility, or someone had messed with the data that he had accessed and downloaded. Either way, both options were bad and whatever caused this was in great need of being fixed. He stopped running and slid down the rest of the way to the floor before taking off, his eyes scanning the building. "Interesting, these walls seem to be shielded against my X-ray and thermal scans." It was impressive, but it wouldn't stop him from finding Uni and saving her.

"That, however..." Steamax slid to a stop as more than three dozen progbots, both flying and non-flying, were surrounding him. "I am here to rescue Lady Uni, move aside."

**_"Enemy. Blue Robot is the enemy."_**

"I see..." Steamax nodded as he took a defensive stance. "Then I shall carve my way through you since you impede my progress to Lady Uni." When the arms on the progbots were revealed to be arm cannons, he scanned them. "Interesting, your armor is different than the standard issue progbots and those are not the typical weapons."

**_"Fire."_** The progbots took aim at Steamax and fired. Before the blasts hit, however, he seemingly disappeared and the blasts went right past each other and the progbots closest to where Steamax was were all blasted full of holes.

"Whew!" Steamax suddenly stood up from where he had been laying flat on his back. "I am glad for the lack of intelligence. If you'll excuse me." He ran past the damaged progbots and cut off the arm cannon of another one, though he found that it took more than one hit of his giant ninja star to do so. "Impressive, this weapon was made with the same material as Lady Noire's sword when she's Black Void." After jamming his arm into the arm cannon, Steamax used it to blast holes through the progbots that were in his way. "I must let Lady Noire know about this."

After all, if this was being done without his knowledge, how would Lady Noire know about this?

(-)

Uni jerked her head as she looked around in the dark. Not that it helped, but she really wished that she had at least a little bit of light. "...I'm scared." She whimpered, her body trembling. "I'm really scared." Tears started to fall out of her eyes. "Noire... Someone... Anyone... Help me... I don't want to be alone anymore."

She knew that no one could hear her. She knew that no one would come to help her. She knew that...

Suddenly the door to her room burst open and Uni snapped her head that way while a person came into the room. "Lady Uni!" A male voice yelled out as the person was by her side in a moment. "You are very distressed, please calm down, I am here to rescue you."

"Who..?" Uni asked as the person, she couldn't see who it was very well, suddenly punched down on her restraints, shattering them.

"My name is Steamax, please hold on." He said as he finished with the last of her restraints and picked her up in a bridal carry before running off. "I was worried when you disappeared, as is your sister."

Uni winced as her eyes had to get used to the light and she looked up at him. "...You're a robot?"

"Yes. Lady Noire does not trust humans and had me built shortly after you were born." Steamax told her as he zipped through the area and ignored the chaos around him.

"Um..." Uni blushed as she realized that she was in her bra and panties and nothing else.

"I will get us out of here, do not worry." Steamax said as he got to the main elevator shaft and ran up the side of the glass at speeds that Uni found quite impressive.

As they cleared the building, Uni caught a glimpse of the guard who was laying in a pool of his own blood and grimaced. "Is he dead?"

"I do not know, nor care. You are my top priority." Steamax said as he got outside and then jumped to the buildings and started to run across the roofs of the buildings before springing to the next one. "I shall have you home soon."

Uni nodded and buried her face against Steamax's body, blushing hard. It was nice that someone came to save her...

...But couldn't he at least put a sheet over her near naked body first?!

(-)

In his control room, Enzo sighed as he saw the destruction of his facility. "Well, this stinks." Grabbing his phone, he made a call. "Listen, that stupid pet robot of that bitch got in here. Look, it's likely that the brat will tell her what really happened. I need you to do something about it. Anything! I don't care what!" He paused as the other person said something over the phone. "Yes! Go with that!" He then hung up the phone and groaned. "How did this happen?!"

(-)

Back at the Basilicom...

Kei nodded as she flipped her phone closed. While she knew that Noire would be thrilled that Uni was safe, she couldn't let the CPU know what was going on. "Lousy interference." Still, she had a job to do and if she wanted to stay on top of things, she needed to do it now. "At least this isn't too hard, all things considered."

Getting out of her chair, she walked to Noire's office again and rang the buzzer. When she was granted entry, she stepped in. "Lady Black Void. I have some news." Noire gave her a look and nodded. "The highly wanted criminal Gernia G. recently resurfaced." Noire narrowed her eyes and Kei continued, "we're in the process of tracking her down. It seems that she's telling people that she's being backed by members of the board."

"You, Azna=Leb, Singe, Mr. Badd and Anonydeath?" Noire asked, getting a nod from Kei. "Am I supposed to believe you?"

"I would understand why you wouldn't. It's true that we did back her in the past, but when her experiments became dangerous and illegal, we turned on her, did we not?"

"..Yes, yes you did." Noire nodded and sighed. "I see, it seems that she wants some..." Whatever she was about to say was cut off as the doors to the outside burst open and both Kei and Noire turned to see Steamax standing there with Uni in his arms. "Uni!" Noire's voice was surprisingly emotional. Kei and Uni both stared at Noire in shock. They had never heard her like that. "Steamax, is she okay?"

"Overly stressed out, I'm afraid." Steamax answered her. "I recommend that she gets some bed rest for at least one day to relax."

"Very well." Noire nodded and looked at Steamax's arm. "What's with the new arm?"

"Ah! I shall explain this after I put Lady Uni to bed."

"And probably get her some clothes to sleep in?" Kei asked and Steamax looked down at Uni and suddenly started sputtering as he finally realized that she was in her underwear. "Just go put her in her room already."

"Y-Y-Y-YES!" Steamax stuttered out and ran to Uni's room, much to Kei's amusement.

"It wouldn't surprise me if the CPUs from the other nations hired Gernia G. to work for them and she told Uni that she was working for us." Kei summarized for Noire, who growled softly. "And with how much stress Uni was under, I doubt that what she says will be completely accurate."

"...You do have a point." Noire nodded. "Get out and don't bother me for the rest of the day."

"Of course." Kei bowed and left Noire alone.

After Kei left and closed the door, Noire walked over to the window door and closed it. "...Gernia G., if I find you I'll rip your head and spine out for what you've done to the people... No, for what you did to my sister." She growled, snarling as her eyes started to glow, "I swear it."

To be continued...

* * *

Did I ever mention that I absolutely hate the Generals from Hyperdevotion Noire?


	43. Hotel Relaxing

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 38

"Thanks, Steamax." Uni said as she finished changing her underwear and putting on some pajamas.

"Anytime, Lady Uni." Steamax said, though he was turned away from her to give her some privacy. "I must talk to your sister about something now and..."

"Wait!" Uni grabbed his arm and clung to it tightly.

"L-l-l-l-lady Uni?!" Steamax stuttered but didn't move. He was about to say something when he felt her trembling. Turning his head, he looked at her and saw the fear on her face, the anxiety and he nodded. "What do you need?"

"Just... Just stay here, please? Until I fall asleep?" Uni knew she was tired, she knew she needed some rest and would feel better if she got some. She also knew that she was a total mess emotionally and having someone near her would comfort her at least a little bit.

"Very well." Steamax nodded and grabbed a chair from in front of her dresser to sit next to the bed while Uni laid down and covered herself up in blankets. "Lady Uni," he spoke up after several minutes and saw that she wasn't relaxing at all. "If you wish to talk..."

"I..." Uni trembled and shivered. "I was so scared, Steamax. I was alone, helpless, betrayed by someone I thought wasn't a bad person and the person who had me put something into me." She gasped as she felt Steamax's hand on her head, gently petting her. "St...Steamax?" She asked, sniffling.

"When your sister created me with these hands, I questioned why a robot would need soft hands. When I discovered I had receptors that could sense pain, I questioned her as well." Steamax still didn't know why he needed receptors that allowed him to feel things, but right now he wasn't complaining about it. "Right now, I'm thankful that she had the foresight to create me with such things."

Uni smiled at him softly. "Thanks, Steamax." Somehow the sensation of him rubbing her head was enough to help her relax enough to fall asleep.

While he watched her, Steamax's eyes weren't looking at Uni, but rather, he was scanning deep into her blood stream and noticed that she did have nanites going through her body. 'Amazing how these CPUs have bodies identical to humans, down to the same organs and everything.' It was quite interesting, even if their bodies burned through poisons and other maladies rather easily compared to humans. But he could see that the nanites in Uni's blood stream weren't being broken down and took note of it.

After making sure that Uni was sound asleep, Steamax got up and walked into Noire's office, though he left the door open slightly so that light could get into her room, figuring that she would appreciate not being in total darkness if she woke up. "My apologies for taking so long," he said in a soft voice, "Lady Uni was still suffering a great deal of distress and requested..." He stopped when Noire held up a hand.

"It's fine," she said and lowered her hand, crossing her arms under her breasts and hefting them up slightly, "I had you built to watch over her anyway."

"Before I forget, she was injected with nanites, I do not know if they are harmful to her, but I thought you should know about it." Noire narrowed her eyes and Steamax shivered softly. "Lady Noire, they do not seem to be doing anything, but I recommend injecting her with an anti-nanite solution after she wakes up."

"Alright, I'll do that. Now..." Noire narrowed her eyes at his right arm. "What's with that?"

"Ah, yes." Steamax removed his arm from the pilfered arm and dropped it on her desk in front of her. "The building that I rescued Lady Uni from had Progbots in it." Noire nodded as she listened. "They were covered in a material that was resistant to even my ninja star." Noire's eyes widened as she instantly realized the implications of that bit of information. "Not only that, but they were being created at the building and there were plenty of people who were overseeing everything and even people who were training and..."

"Enough." Noire stood up and was covered in a black light. When the light faded, Noire was replaced by her HDD self. Her outfit was a pair of metal boots over her feet with a black leg covering that covered her from her knees down to her boots while leaving her thighs completely uncovered. Her processor had a black strip covering her abdomen and crotch while her butt and hips were covered in a light blue bikini-bottom. The top of her breasts and chest was covered in a similar-colored blue covering while the center of her breasts and nipples were covered by a black strip with blue diamonds covering where her nipples would be. The underside of her breasts were fully exposed to anyone who would look at her, as was her shoulders, underarms and the sides of her abdomen and her back. Her hands were covered in clawed gloves with a thick bracelet around both wrists that had sharp blades on the sides of her arms. On her head were two hair clips that had some jagged blades that, with the way they were set up, made it look like she had a crown on. Her eyes had gone from a bright red to a more magenta color and her hair had turned white with red tips.

Like the other Voids in Gamworld, the area of her chest above her breasts was a black hole that pulsed with power, though in Black Void's case, it was covered by her processor. And like the other Voids in Gamworld, her power symbols were black and upside down while her Sclera was also black.

"Lady Black Void?" Steamax gulped, knowing someone was going to die.

Black Void said nothing as two shoulder pauldrons with sharp, blade-like tips, formed and hovered around her shoulders while the sides of her hips had what looked like two giant USB connectors float there beside her. "Steamax," her voice was deeper and oozed arrogance as she spoke while narrowing her eyes while six blue, jagged wings, formed on her back. "We're going, you're going to show me where Uni was held." Steamax nodded and stood up.

"What will happen?"

A small, sinister smile came to Black Void's face. "We're going to make an example out of all of them."

"Of course." Steamax nodded and the two quickly left, heading towards the place where Uni had been captured.

After they left, Kei narrowed her eyes and pulled out her flip phone before dialing a number. "Yeah, it's me. Listen, I don't care what it takes, get that project done by tomorrow, you hear me? Thanks to a screw up we're going to be out of time before we know it. Don't worry, I'll handle things on my end. Now go."

As she hung up, she sighed heavily. "What a pain." Kei knew it would be worth it in the end, but right now, it didn't really matter.

(-)

Down in the lower levels of Lastation...

"Nep Nep!" Compa yelled happily as she, Gust and Warechu came across Neptune, Rom, Ram and Peashy.

Turning and seeing the trio, Neptune waved back and smiled. "Compa!" Her eyes lit up happily as she saw the blonde. "Fancy meeting you here."

"Uh huh." Compa smiled with her hands behind her back. "Want to see something neat?" Neptune had a confused look on her face, but she nodded and Compa pulled her arms out from behind her. "Ta-da! I have hands now!"

"Woah!" Neptune ran up to Compa and grabbed the hands. "They're so hard and shiny! Did you beat up a robot for them?"

Compa giggled at the thought of doing that. "Nah uh, this nice man by the name of Mr. Anny gave me cybernetic arms." She rotated her wrist and flexed her fingers, much to the delight of Rom and Ram, who ran up to her and hugged her tightly.

"Um..." Neptune's face was screwed into one of confusion. "Compa, when you say Anny... Was he a pink robot who talks with a soft lisp and says things like 'honey' and acts like someone who's totally into playing for the other team?"

"Uh..." Compa rubbed the back of her head in confusion. "I don't know about playing for another team, but the way he talked was about right and he had pale skin, blonde hair and blue eyes and was really, REALLY handsome."

Neptune twitched as she heard that. "Anny... Did he have a voice that sounded like a woman's?"

"Yes." Gust nodded at Neptune. "He came across as a pervert too. Do you know him?"

Neptune sighed heavily and hung her head. "Man! Even him?! First Plutie, then him, who next? Copypaste?"

"Uh..?" Everyone said at the same time and Neptune sighed, shaking her head.

"No, no, don't worry, I'm just really stressed out right now." Neptune rubbed her forehead. "I thought I saw someone who knew me and it's been bothering me is all."

"And it is getting pretty late." Compa nodded, knowing that exhaustion wouldn't help Neptune's stress out. "So what should..?"

There was a ringing and Neptune reached into her parka to pull out her phone. "Huh, unknown number." She answered it anyway, figuring it was someone important. "Hello?"

"HEY!"

Neptune winced at the volume before blinking. "Wait a second, isn't that annoying voice Filyn?"

"Who are you calling annoying?" Filyn asked over the phone, her voice filled with anger. "Bah! Enough of that, is Compa, IF and the others with you?"

"Compa, Warechu and Gusty are." Neptune answered her. "What's up?"

"Chromey found this awesome place to rest! I'll give you directions and then I have to call Iffy. If you don't feel like walking, just find an elevator to the upper levels and take a taxi and we'll pay when you get here." Afterwords, she explained where to go and then hung up.

Neptune blinked as the call ended. "So... Who wants to go on an elevator ride?"

The others looked at her in confusion.

(-)

Several minutes later...

After getting out of the flying taxi, which Neptune had to admit was a lot more comfortable than she thought it would be, the group got out when Chrome came out of the hotel to meet them. "Here's your payment." She said to the taxi driver, who nodded and took off after everyone got out.

"So..." Neptune gawked at the hotel. "This place is nice. How did you afford it?"

Chrome smiled at her. "Amazing what happens when you catch a pregnant woman who fell backwards on some steps, huh?" She sighed at the confused looks she was getting. "She's the wife of the guy who owns this hotel and as a thank you we're getting a three day stay for free."

"Awesome!" Neptune cheered happily. "You're the best, Chromey!"

Chrome chuckled as another taxi pulled up and IF and Linda got out. After the group was together and Chrome, Linda and IF had gotten over their shock of seeing Compa with working hands, the group went inside the hotel. After stopping to talk to the manager, they were led to a large, fancy hotel room that broke off into several other rooms.

"This is so cool!" Compa gushed. "A six bedroom hotel room?! And each one has two beds and its own shower?!"

"Plus a television in each room?!" Neptune yelped and started snooping around. "Oh wow! There's a mini-fridge stocked full of stuff!"

"...It's a good thing we don't need to pay for any of this." IF muttered and hissed. "Um... I need to get rubbed down." She sighed as Linda grabbed her and dragged her into one of the rooms and closed the door behind her.

"How about we just relax right now?" Chrome asked, getting a cheer from the others. "There's also a pool downstairs, I think we should go later."

None of them made it to the pool. After relaxing, they ordered food and fell asleep on the beds after eating, all of them exhausted from the long day.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Black Void snarled as she smashed the last of the progbots in the basement that Steamax had lead her to. "Rats scurry fast when their hiding place is exposed, huh?" There wasn't much in the place and she knew that the people had quickly packed up and moved, though how they did so so fast was a mystery to her.

"My apologies, Lady Black Void," Steamax bowed to her, "I would have taken them out myself, but..." He stopped as Black Void whirled on him, her eyes gleaming in repressed anger.

"Steamax, your top priority in that situation was to rescue my sister, you did what you were supposed to do." She let out a huff of annoyance and flicked her multi-colored hair to the side. "I would rather they get away if you complete your mission than they all be dead if you failed."

"...Lady Black Void, I do not mean to presume, but it sounds like you care about your sister."

Black Void was silent, her eyes soft before she shook her head. "Care is too strong of a word, Steamax. As is concern. However, she is to replace me some day and I would hate to have to groom a new successor from scratch like I have with her."

Steamax nodded as he heard her reasoning. "Of course." Standing up, he scanned the building, which was a lot easier this time as most of the walls were destroyed, which didn't impede his scans. "There is no more life signs, there are a few more areas I cannot scan into."

Black Void chuckled as she motioned for him to lead her to the areas. "As if I'm stupid enough not to check every area of the map out."

"Yes." Steamax nodded.

'If they're working for those CPUs of the other nations, then I will make them suffer in ways they have never suffered before.' Black Void narrowed her eyes in anger as her eyes started to gleam. 'Not only those who dare to kidnap my sister, but those who ordered it. When I find out who you are, you will suffer. I swear it.'

To be continued...

* * *

Up next, a quick interlude.

I think that Uni would have such a reaction to being in the situation she was in, don't you?


	44. Interlude: Hyperdimension 3

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Interlude: Hyperdimension 3

Back in the Hyperdimension...

"We're here!" Neptune smiled as she, Croire and Uzume stepped through a purple portal.

"Neptune!" Nepgear cried out and rushed at the bigger version of her sister, hugging her tightly while trembling.

"Woah!" Neptune's eyes widened as she hugged her little sister. "What's wrong? I thought you'd be okay if Tiny Me was gone for a few days."

"It's not that." Nepgear looked at Neptune and trembled. "She sounds so tired, so defeated and so worn out when I talk to her. I just want to get her home. Or at least, if we have to, I want to go there and give her a hug and let her know everything's okay."

Neptune smiled at Nepgear and patted her head. "You're such a good little sister." She then let go of the hug and flipped open her Nep-note. "Okay, just tell Crostie where to go and we'll go and..."

"Can't do it." Croire interrupted from inside the Nep-note.

"HUH?!" Everyone gaped at the notebook.

"Um, Crostie, this isn't the time for jokes." Neptune had a slightly irritated look on her face. "If Tiny Me is in trouble, we should..."

"Moron! I didn't say I wouldn't do it. I said I CAN'T do it." Croire sighed while her wings flashed. "I'm out of power. Between this damn notebook draining me and the fact that I HAVEN'T EATEN ANYTHING IN A WEEK!" She screamed so loudly that Neptune nearly dropped the book. "I got NOTHING left in me. I can get you around in this dimension, no problem, the notebook has enough power to do that, but jumping dimension? Nah uh. I'll need at least a week if you leave me in here."

"...Croire..." Nepgear began slowly. "If you were let out of the Nep-Note, how long would it take to recover?"

"Gah! I don't know, sheesh. A day or two at most? Even then I don't know where I'm going, so it might be even longer than that. Why? You going to let me out? There's no way to know if I'll disappear on you when you need me." Croire teased Nepgear, who looked at the notebook with a stern determination on her face.

"...What would it take for you to stay and help?" Nepgear asked her. "You owe my sister, you know that, right? Otherwise you'd be dead because Kurome would have used you to destroy the dimensions and she wouldn't care about you."

Croire huffed at Nepgear. "Is that supposed to move me? I don't see how that's, AAAAH!"

The next thing anyone knew, Nepgear had the Nep-Note in her hand and was grabbing at the page that Croire was sealed in. "Listen here! If you don't help my sister, I'll rip you out of this book myself and cut you into pieces!"

"...That would defeat the purpose of having me help." Croire pointed out, though her voice was slightly shaky.

"Okay, fine..." Nepgear had a grin on her face that was slightly disturbing. "If you don't want to help then... Histoire, could you call Plutia? Tell her we have a naughty child who needs some discipline."

"...She's that crazy psycho sadist CPU from the Ultradimension, right?" Croire asked, getting a nod from Nepgear. "...So... About helping your sister. I'll need lots of food and dimensional coordinates and I'll tell you how long it'll take. Can I come out now?"

"You take off, and I swear I will hunt you down and tell Plutia to go to town on you." Nepgear growled out and the Nep-Note shivered while she removed the tape.

Coming out of the book, Croire, a dusty-skinned fairy with short, dark-blonde hair and blue eyes, trembled and shivered while her face was slightly blue. "That was horrible! Don't threaten me with her again!"

"Behave and I won't." Nepgear told the fairy.

"Nepgear," Histoire spoke up as she floated up next to Nepgear, "while that works sometimes, please remember to not abuse such threats in the future." She sighed as Nepgear nodded. "I share your concerns about Neptune, but please, act like the Goddess you're supposed to be."

"I'm sorry." Nepgear said shyly.

"Whatever," Croire muttered and stretched her arms above her head and grimaced as there was a loud popping sound that had everyone cringing as they heard that. "...That felt good."

"But it sounded horrible." Neptune and Uzume said at the same time, shivering from what sounded like broken joints and bones.

"Anyway, what's the dimensional coordinates?" Croire asked Nepgear, who pulled out a phone and started reading off a string of numbers. As she said more and more numbers, Croire's face got progressively more and more pale. "...Are those numbers accurate?" She asked, shivering and when Nepgear showed her the numbers, she surprised everyone by swearing loudly and very colorfully.

"Crostie?" Neptune asked, blushing at some of the things that Croire was saying. "Um, Crostie..."

"WILL YOU STOP SWEARING AND CALM DOWN ALREADY!?" Histoire yelled, causing Croire to yelp in fright. Taking a deep breath, Histoire slowly let it out. "Now..." She gave the other book fairy a stern look, "what do you know about this dimension?"

"The numbers are quite... Different than what I'm used to seeing." Nepgear said as she looked at them.

Croire sighed and shook her head. "Why? Why did she have to cross over to THAT side of the multiverse? Why couldn't she end up in another area instead? No, she couldn't just stay in the same one, but instead she went to THAT side! ARRRGH!"

Uzume gave Croire a light bop on the head. "Enough, Crozy! What's going on?"

Rubbing the back of her head, Croire sighed heavily. "How much do any of you know about the multiverse?"

"Um," Neptune spoke up and tapped her chin, "can you simplify the question? Isn't it a collection of universes?"

"Not completely," Histoire spoke up, "a dimension has a single universe, yes, but within that dimension there are various realms, such as Celestia, Hell and the Underworld, not to mention that all of that dimension's time, history and future along with other unique elements that make up that reality. For example, Neptune, in this dimension, you were a CPU, but in your dimension, you were born human to human parents."

Neptune nodded and suddenly perked up. "Hey! Nepgear! After Tiny Me gets back, I should take you to visit my parents. Mom always talked about having a second kid."

Nepgear giggled nervously. "Please don't do that, Neptune, otherwise you might have to deal with the fourth wall attacking you."

"Can I continue?" Croire asked, getting nods from everyone. "Alright, Histoire's right, within one dimension is the various realms of reality and all that jazz. The more similar to your dimension one is, the closer they are to each other."

"Like a cluster of stars in the night sky?" Nepgear asked, getting a nod from Croire.

"Yeah, if you look at it like that, this next bit will be easy to understand. Well, within the multiverse there's a near infinite number of alternate dimensions. Most of these are just simply alternate timelines. For example, when dealing with Kurome, there were probably a bunch of ways that the situation could have ended up. Like maybe you didn't free your sister from Kurome's mind control. Or Kurome beat Uzume at the end. Or Uzume died. Or maybe the CPU Shift period ended up with new CPUs."

"Right, and that probably applies to all of our adventures then." Nepgear said as she thought about all the different ways that things could have gone over the years. "And that's just within one dimension, right?"

"Parallel timelines are their own dimension technically." Croire clarified for Nepgear, "however the spatial coordinates will be the same as this one, depending on how similar your histories are to each other up to the time split."

"So, if there was a dimension where there was no Uzume as Neptune's predecessor..." Nepgear began, nodding slowly. "That would be an example of a dimension on a different spatial coordinates."

"Exactly! And if I ended up finding a timeline where you were the CPU, the odds are that you're in the same space, but not the same time." She gave Nepgear a broad grin. "It's called the Time AND Space Continuum for a reason, kiddo!"

"Um..." Neptune scratched her head. "How is it different?"

Croire sighed heavily. "Just accept it, okay? Look, you know that two dimensions can be similar but have different spatial coordinates because they have an entirely different history from each other, while two dimensions which have the same spatial coordinates have a shared history, they just drifted apart at one point."

"I see, that does make sense. Am I to assume that there's more to this?" Histoire asked, getting a nod from Croire.

"Of course. See, here's the thing about the multiverse... What you know is only really half the story." She sighed at the confused looks she was getting. "Let me simplify things. For each dimension out there, there's a dark echo." Seeing as there wasn't any more clarification, she sighed. "Argh! Light side and Dark side, okay?!"

"So that's why you brought it up." A male voice spoke up and Croire let out a scream while almost jumping almost off her book. "Sorry about that."

"Umio!" Uzume's eyes lit up in happiness. "I missed you, buddy! You like living at the Basilicom?" She asked her fish friend with the stoic face.

"Yes, but things sure have been sad with miss Neptune missing." Umio admitted. "Why, even miss Uni here has been affected by it."

"Don't call me out!" Uni growled as she stuck her head out from around the corner. "Sorry, I was coming to apologize to you when I overheard your conversation."

Croire rubbed her forehead. "This is getting annoying. Someone get me a piece of paper and a couple of marbles!" She waited for the others to comply and had Nepgear hold the paper up. "Okay, Neptune, put your marble above the paper."

"Anywhere specific?" Neptune asked, when she was told not to, the busty girl nodded and just held her marble above the sheet.

"Okay," Croire nodded at Uzume, "put that one anywhere underneath the sheet. When the redhead complied, Croire nodded at them. "Okay, the marble on top? That represents this dimension." Everyone nodded, following along so far. "The marble underneath? That's where the idiot's located."

Nepgear frowned in confusion. "So what does this have to..."

"I'M GETTING TO IT!" Croire yelled at her. "Sheesh! Alright, listen up! When you shine light on something a shadow gets made, right?" The others nodded and Croire pointed at the marble Neptune was holding. "That's this dimension, it's mostly light." She then pointed at the one that Uzume was holding. "That one's in the dark side of the Multiverse."

"...Are you saying Neptune's in a dimension of evil!?" Nepgear yelped in fright and Croire shook her head. "What?"

"It's dark, sure, and probably twisted and there's probably a few baddies there that would be good people here." Croire scratched her chin as she ran the dimensional coordinates in her head. "Hmm, odd, that dimension's right on the border. Some things are messed up but the last time I was there it should have been on this side of the divide."

"Then why did you freak out when Nepgear read the coordinates off?" Histoire asked her.

"Because the numbers are backwards!" Croire shot back at her. "If you read the numbers in reverse order you'd get a location that would be on this side of the divide. In fact, it would probably be pretty close to this dimension."

"Crostie..." Neptune spoke up, giving her a stern look, "you weren't doing something bad in that dimension, were you?"

"Me?" Croire pointed to herself and sighed at the looks she was getting. "Nah, didn't have to, things were... Odd there. Lots of weird monsters, but things were pretty peaceful and dull. It was before I started to mess with dimensions, okay?" She crossed her arms and huffed in annoyance. "Things seemed okay, but boring, outside of the weird monsters." She grinned and blushed as she recalled some of the stuff she had recorded. "Yeah! Those had been wicked cool! Don't see some of those monsters in the other dimensions very often!" She sighed at the looks she was getting. "Anyway, it'll probably take me... Two, maybe three days to get enough power to open a portal to that side fully." She grimaced at the thought. "But don't hold me to that."

"I'll start making some food for you then." Nepgear said as she walked off to the kitchen, followed by Uni.

"Hey, Histy..." Uzume looked at the book fairy, who gave her a confused, but concerned look. "I was wondering, could you help me with something?"

"Sure." Histoire nodded and followed Uzume out of the room.

"You know, Crostie..." Neptune smiled at the fairy. "I don't think you're too bad of a person, you're just a naughty girl sometimes."

"Shut it!" Croire yelled, her face flushing as she looked away.

(-)

"Um, Nepgear..." Uni said as she entered the kitchen behind her friend. "I wanted to apologize to you." Nepgear looked at her in confusion. "For the things I said to and about Neptune, I mean."

"Uni..." Nepgear gave her a smile. "Just apologize to Neptune when she gets back. I'm sure she'd appreciate it." Uni nodded and Nepgear tossed her an apron. "But you still need to be punished! So you're going to help me make a delicious cake for Croire!"

Uni smiled as she put the apron on. "Deal!"

Nepgear smiled back at her. 'Hang on, Neptune. We're going to help you get home, I promise!'

End Interlude: Hyperdimension 3

* * *

Nepgear is scary!

And man, Nepgear, you better hurry, Neptune needs you.


	45. What If: Green

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

So my beta reader was apparently re-reading the Leanbox arc and wrote another what-if.

This one was much longer than the previous one, so I thought I'd make it its own chapter.

* * *

What-If about Vert and Emerald

CPU Emerald Heart was honest enough with herself to admit that there were moments where she would avoid a situation and leave well enough alone. There was always a situation where one needed to retreat in order to avoid doing grievous damage to oneself and the people around you after all. So she wasn't embarrassed to admit that she could feel hesitation in some intense situations.

But this time she hesitated to enter the room of her little, well, little was the wrong term to use since her younger sister was both taller than her and curvier than her. Personally she found it to be somewhat unfair that her younger sister had huge boobs, wide hips and a killer butt that made more than a few people in Leanbox lust after her. The fact that her younger sister was a freaking bombshell wasn't what was making her hesitate. Oh no, Emerald Heart was hesitating because she knew that right now, the CPU Candidate of Leanbox, known as Vert was busy pleasuring herself.

Emerald Heart blushed heavily at the thought of her younger sister doing stuff like that, but she understood why. After all, one of the biggest attributes of Leanbox was the fact that there was a lot of open sex that went on and practically everything was encouraged. 'Well, except using tentacle monsters.' Emerald thought to herself and shuddered at the thought of someone being so depraved that they went to breed with those slimy things. Other than that, so long as both parties were in agreement and no one got hurt, Emerald encouraged it. Heck, Emerald herself had more than a few human lovers and even participated in more than a few orgies.

She scratched her cheek and blushed softly. Those orgies could get out of hand pretty quick.

Thinking back to Vert and her current situation, Emerald sighed as she recalled how it started a few weeks ago, when a teary and flustered Vert asked her to postpone their gaming night, much to Emerald's shock. There were no signs of any problem with Leanbox or any conflicts between the two sisters as far as she knew. Heck, the blonde CPU was happy to be pretty close with her sibling, sharing a deep love of MMORPGs and tactical RPGs, stories about handsome, muscular males and their occasional jabs against each other that were light-hearted.

So what could have happened to change all of that?

The next day the two sisters did have their game night and Vert even cooked Emerald's favorite dish herself, to show her sister that she was sorry about worrying Emerald and that she did want to spend time with her dear elder sister. But still, the shorter woman was curious as what could affect Vert enough that she would want to skip game night.

She got her answer few days ago when, in the middle of the night, Emerald went to check Vert and found her sister's room empty for some reason and noticed a very distinct smell. It didn't take long for Emerald Heart to put two and two together as she saw a small puddle on the floor and a trail of liquid leading from Vert's bedroom to her private bathroom. Sighing as it seemed that the urge to be intimate had finally awoken in full force in the recently born CPU Candidate and the poor girl was now desperately trying to deal with them by pleasuring herself vigorously and repeatedly if the smells and the sudden loud cry from the bathroom were any indication.

Shaking her head, Emerald Heart had a rueful smile on her face. She wouldn't make fun of her sister over this. After all, those urges were an absolutely natural part of both humans and Goddesses and it was even more intense for Leanbox CPUs as they were constantly feeling the emotions of their people, which included the raw lust that all people had towards their goddesses. Considering that in the past Emerald used the same method that Vert was using until her own elder sister, Jade Heart, took it upon herself to show her a much better method to deal with an overflow of lust. "And now I'll share it with you, little sister." Emerald Heart whispered softly.

Gathering her courage, the short haired, blonde woman knocked on the door of her sister's personal chamber.

"Vert! It's me, Emerald!" The Goddess of Leanbox called through the door and fought the urge to giggle as she imagined poor Vert currently and quickly abandoned her "procedure" to quickly gather her clothes, get dressed, fix the bed and hide her special toys in various spots. "Sorry for interrupting, but I need to talk to you!"

"Please wait, sis!" Came the muffled shout from the other side of the door and Emerald Heart just shook her head as she heard the desperation in Vert's tone of voice.. "Just give me a minute!"

"Don't worry, unless it's important you know I wouldn't enter your room unless you said I could!" Emerald Heart called out to both sooth Vert nerves and to make sure that she wouldn't humiliate her sister. Forty seconds later the CPU Candidate of Leanbox let her older sister come in.

When she did, she noticed that Vert's personal chamber was poorly lit and the owner of the room was sitting on her bad while clutching at her blanket, which was covering her lower part, in her arms. Emerald Heart approached her sister, who gulped nervously, quickly realizing that her sister would smell the musky aroma quickly but woman in gym shorts didn't say anything and simply sat on the edge of the bed and outstretched both of her arms toward her sister with a kind smile.

"Vert…" The older Goddess said softly as she gently took her sister arms into her own and slowly pulling them toward her smaller, there were no point of denying it, but still gorgeous chest. "You don't need to be ashamed of it. We and human females have those kind of urges, this is part of our very biology. Like breathing…"

Vert blushed as her hands were on her sister's breasts, though her blush got more intense as she quickly realized that Emerald already realized what happened to her. But her elder sister's words and gentleness, understanding in her eyes put Vert's soul at ease. "Sorry, sis… it… I… I just suddenly felt the itch in… my lower body." Vert stuttered and explained frantically as her sister smiled at her, without saying anything else. "It was very… distressing and I… was… shy to admit it."

"Silly girl." Allowing herself to use her right of elder sister, Emerald puller the taller woman into a hug, rubbing her back slowly. Vert quickly relaxed and snuggled closer to her sister, much to their shared delight. "You don't need to be ashamed Vert, as a Goddess you're going to feel all the emotions of the people of your nation. Also, merely touching yourself won't help you calm down. I know from PERSONAL experience to deal with this. You need to have a true connection with a man, a woman or both to finally satisfy this itch."

"Eh?" Stammered Vert, but something deep in her very being instantly cried "YES!", agreeing with her sister's words wholeheartedly. Emerald slightly pulled back to gaze directly into Vert's eyes to show how serious she was.

"Let's go Vert, I've prepared a room for the two of us… and a group of lonely souls that are in need of a loving embrace… and some physical love too." She winked at her sister, who blushed softly.

(-)

There was a special chamber in the Leanbox's Basilicom, where CPU Emerald Heart consoled the lonely souls of her nation on a special MASSIVE bed. Males and females of Leanbox, all of whom, for whatever reason, just had trouble finding a soulmate or even a bed mate among their kin, would find the love and help they needed in the arms of the nation's CPU.

But tonight, two gorgeous woman consoled the hearts and bodies of dozen of males. Bodies touched each other, arms wrapped around torsos, necks and each other, as kiss after kiss was shared.

Consumed by the storm of love and passion, Vert couldn't help but cry in joy and delight. It was so blissful, to be hugged, to be loved, to be needed, to be held with such passion. But no matter how loving and gently all her newfound lovers were, the kisses and embraces she shared with her precious sister were the best.

They could be different in many aspects… but at the same time the shared so many similar traits.

And now, Emerald and Vert were equally happy, equally satisfied and above all… equally in love.

* * *

Oh my, how lewd!

Next chapter is back to the regular story.


	46. Dreams and Fears

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Don't forget to check the previous chapter in case you missed it and leave a review for that chapter as well.

* * *

Chapter 39

"Hello, Nepsy." A cool, confident voice spoke up and Neptune turned, half dreading what she would see. Sitting on a rock with her elbows resting on her knees while she rested her chin in the palms of her hands was Kurome. "We have more time to talk now."

"What do you want?" Neptune asked her. "I don't know if you know, but you're dead."

"Again with that?" Kurome asked, sighing in amusement. "What makes you think that I'm here for the same reasons I was before?"

"Did I die sometime and get sent to Hell again?" Neptune asked. "Maybe that power surge killed me and this is how Lord Yemma is punishing me? No, wait, there weren't any angels dragging me to Hell, so maybe I'm alive?" Neptune tapped her chin and looked around, not seeing much other than the dust and dirt paths around her. She started pacing in circles and muttering to herself. "So if I'm alive, then I must be dreaming, right? Or maybe..."

"Are you done yet?" Kurome asked, amusement in her voice as she watched Neptune walk in circles. "As fun as this is, Nepsy, I actually did want to talk to you."

"...What do you want, Kurome?" Neptune asked as she stopped to look at her predecessor. "...You know, I've always wondered something." Kurome tilted her head in confusion. "You and Uzume dress similar, but have different colors, which one was the outfit you wore when you were the CPU of Planeptune?"

"I'm the real Uzume, you know?" Kurome smirked at her. "I don't really remember, but is it really important?" Seeing Neptune's annoyed look, Kurome's smirk merely increased in size. "Well, whatever, tell me something Nepsy... is this really what you want?"

Neptune blinked in confusion. "Huh?"

"Saving these people, I mean." Kurome's face became somber. "I get it, you're a good person, Nepsy. But aren't you burning yourself out? Besides, wouldn't you rather just relax and unwind for awhile? Aren't you the lazy one?"

"...Yeah, I'm lazy," Neptune admitted to her, "but," she balled her hands into fists, "I can't just let people get hurt if I can stop it! That's how I am!" She flinched at the raised eyebrow Kurome gave her. "It's true!"

"Is it?" Kurome asked her. "You aren't a typical CPU. You're envious of people like Compa and IF, for how they can choose what they want in life. Wasn't the happiest memories you ever had, not of your sister, of Histoire or even of being a CPU... But taking care of three little children?"

"How do you know that?" Neptune asked as a cold spike went through her body as it felt like her blood instantly turned to ice.

"I saw your memories, Nepsy," Kurome chuckled at her, "when those three girls were happy, you were happy. When they were sad, you did all you could to make them happy. When they were sick, you took care of them. You played with them, fed them, clothed them, taught them as they grew up. Of all the cherished memories you have, there are tons with those three girls." She pushed herself to her feet and slowly walked towards Neptune with exaggerated steps while keeping her arms crossed behind her back. "I know that if you could have given up your ability to be a CPU, you would have, if it meant you could have more moments like those, right?"

"You don't know anything!" Neptune protested and Kurome chuckled while leaning in close and Neptune could see that her pupils were an upside down and black power symbol. "You... You're a Void?"

"Void? Is that what you think, Nepsy?" Kurome asked before grabbing Neptune's chin and smiling at her. "I'm Uzume Tennouboushi. The original Uzume at least."

"No you're not." Neptune twitched and pushed Kurome away from her. "You aren't Uzume! You're Kurome! I don't know why you're here, but I'll Nep you up if you think you can..." She trailed off as Kurome chuckled at her. "What?"

"Just admit it, Nepsy..." Kurome smiled at her. "You would rather be lazing on the couch eating pudding and playing games. There's no reason for you to care so much about these people. As soon as you can open a portal, you'll be home and then what? You haven't fixed the underlying problems of this world. Eventually the Fearicite will return and more Voids will come to ruin people's lives." Neptune's face fell as she heard that. "So why do you bother? You're trying to save a world that doesn't deserve it." Kurome narrowed her eyes and swung her arm to the side and the area was filled with images. "Look!" She pointed to the memories of what Neptune had seen in Lowee. "When White Void was tormenting her sisters the people stood to the side and did nothing. When you freed them from White Void's rule and were injured, they demanded that you let them kill the children."

"But that..." Neptune protested before the scenery changed to Leanbox and Neptune blushed as she saw the memories that went through her.

"The people there lust after you, they lusted after a monster like Green Void, yet none of them really wanted Green Void to die. Think about it. Didn't Green Void say she had six previous sisters before your precious daughter was revealed to be her seventh sister? The people there basically created children for the express purposes of DYING to that slut of a Goddess!" Kurome's voice was starting to get heated and Neptune could feel all the anger she felt when she saw Peashy about to be executed flooding back through her. And not just then, but the memories of when she saw Rom getting beaten and battered by someone who should have been her elder sister flooded through her and made her anger increase. "And what about Eden? To see your friend, someone who you lived with for twenty years appear before you in such a twisted manner."

"...Stop it..." Neptune trembled, tears coming out of her eyes.

"And who knows about Noire and Uni?" Kurome continued. "Do you think you can handle seeing your closest friend being like the other Voids? A complete monster? And then there's Planeptune..." She chuckled as Neptune twitched, tears in her eyes. "I wonder... Will you be the CPU there? Or will Nepgear? Or perhaps you'll get there when Nepgear is being beaten and left for dead."

"No! No!" Neptune covered her ears and shuddered. "No! I wouldn't! I love Nep Jr.! I wouldn't!"

"Ah!" Kurome smiled and got behind Neptune and hugged her. "Are you sure? Look." Neptune looked as a mirror formed in front of her and her eyes widened in fear as she saw the reflection in the mirror.

She didn't see her usual white hooded parka. Instead, she saw a black and red hoodie that was mostly unzipped, revealing that she was wearing a black bra underneath. Her left eye was covered in shade but was glowing red while her right eye...

Her right eye had an upside down black-colored power symbol in it.

And in the center of her chest...

Was a hole of pure darkness.

"No..." Neptune trembled as Kurome chuckled to her. "No! I'm not! I'm not!"

"You are..." Kurome purred softly. "After all, what you see is nothing more than the echoes of the darkness in your own heart."

"NO!" Neptune screamed as the scenery turned white and disappeared.

(-)

"NO!" Neptune screamed as she sat up in bed, her eyes wide, unseeing and sweat dripping down her face. "That was... That was..."

"Ngh..." Rom opened her eyes and looked at Neptune. "Big sis? Are you okay?" She crawled to her hands and knees and crawled up next to Neptune, who was trembling. "Big sister?" When Neptune didn't respond and was just rocking back and forth while looking scared, she got off the bed and ran out of the room.

Quickly finding Chrome's room, she opened the door and ran in, before shaking Chrome several times to get her to wake up.

"Hmm?" Chrome blinked a few times and squinted. "Rom?" She asked, getting a nod from the little girl. "What do you want? It's..." She looked at the clock that was on the corner table between the beds. "Three in the morning..." She hoped that whatever Rom needed wasn't anything major, she wanted more sleep.

"Big sis needs help!"

Any thoughts of getting back to sleep quickly fled Chrome's mind.

(-)

"Neptune..." Chrome said while shaking the trembling CPU. "Neptune..." She gently pulled the smaller girl against her. "Come on, relax."

Suddenly Neptune gasped and looked around wildly as she blinked her eyes rapidly. "Where am I?! What's going on?! What?"

"Big Sis!" Rom suddenly jumped onto Neptune, hugging her while Ram and Peashy both rubbed their eyes while waking up. "You were acting weird."

Panting hard, Neptune looked at Rom as things finally started to come into focus. "R...Rom? Is that you?" Rom nodded and Neptune hugged the girl tightly. "Thank goodness."

"Did you have a dream about her?" Chrome asked and Neptune stiffened and let go of Rom before sliding to the floor. "Neptune?"

"...I need to use the bathroom." Neptune giggled nervously and ran off to the bathroom, causing Chrome to look at her in worry.

(-)

After closing the door behind her and turning the lights on, Neptune stood in front of the mirror and looked at her reflection. "...No hole, no black power symbols..." She trembled and fell to her knees, panting. "Just a dream! Just a dream, it wasn't real."

Yet, no matter what she told herself, those words felt hollow, empty and meaningless, as though she was trying to convince herself more than anything else.

It was more than fifteen minutes later when there was a knocking on the door. Neptune didn't answer and when she heard Chrome's voice, she opened the door silently and let the other woman into the bathroom.

Seeing Neptune's condition, Chrome sighed and gently led her out of the bathroom. "Come on, let's talk." Neptune idly nodded as Chrome led her back into her bedroom. "Before you ask, I sent the girls to sleep in my room." Neptune nodded as she was sat on the bed. "What's wrong?"

"...I don't..." Neptune shuddered and trembled. "Chrome, I..."

"Calm down," Chrome told her, "take a deep breath and why don't you tell me what's going through your head right now?"

Neptune did just that and trembled softly. "...It started yesterday, I... An enemy that I thought was dead appeared in front of me and wanted to talk." She didn't look at Chrome while her purple eyes glistened with unshed tears. "She made me nearly kill my little sister. She made me nearly destroy my world. She forced herself into my mind and did things to me to make me like a Void."

"Neptune..." Chrome whispered softly, unsure how to react to this information.

"We beat her though, and she's dead, but..." Neptune squeezed the bottom of her hooded parka. "She showed up yesterday... And she showed up again and..." She screwed her eyes shut as her body shook. "I don't know what she wants. I..." Neptune tried to recall everything Kurome told her but couldn't. She could only remember the sensations. "I was so cold, Chrome and... I felt anger in me, all sorts of anger." She turned her head and suddenly lunged at Chrome, burying her face into the other woman's chest, shaking and sobbing softly. "She showed me... She showed me an image of myself..."

"Neptune," Chrome whispered softly and rubbed the trembling girl's back. "What else?"

"I... She showed me what I'd look like... As a Void." Neptune sobbed out and Chrome's pupils shrank as she heard that. "I..."

"Listen to me, Neptune." Chrome pushed her back and gave her a stern, but gentle, look. "You are NOT a Void. You will NOT become one, do you understand?"

"But..." Neptune whimpered and Chrome shook her head.

"I won't let you become one. You mean too much to everyone to just become a Void." Chrome pulled her back against her chest and hugged her. "I promise you, Neptune... I won't let you become a Void."

Neptune hugged Chrome back and started to sob into the other woman's chest.

As she heard Neptune cry, Chrome felt as though knives were being stabbed into her heart with each passing moment. 'How long have you been holding this in?' She asked herself, but didn't let go of the hug while Neptune sobbed.

After everything Neptune had done for her and the people of Gamworld, this little bit of comfort was the least that she could do for Neptune.

(-)

Meanwhile...

K-Sha frowned as she looked at the new facility that they had all moved to after Uni had been rescued. "I don't like this."

"I don't either." Enzo said as he walked up beside her. "The fact that we were forced to move has set us back tremendously."

K-Sha spun and took a knee as she bowed deeply. "Master Enzo! Please! I'll do anything! The CPUs will pay for the pain they've caused the citizens of Lastation."

"Anything, huh?" Enzo slowly rubbed his chin.

"Yes!" K-Sha nodded, "my abilities are not strong enough to defeat a CPU Candidate, much less a fully realized CPU in combat. I wish to have that changed."

Enzo slowly smirked at her. "Very well, Gernia G.!"

"Yes?" The blonde asked as she walked into the room and looked at K-Sha, who was standing up and looking at her nervously. "What do you want me to do to her?"

"...Give her the full upgrade and be fast about it."

Gernia G. giggled and K-Sha rolled her eyes at the blonde's antics. "Oh, don't worry, by the time I'm done with her..." A savage grin came across her face as she approached K-Sha, "she'll be a brand new person."

"Excellent, see that you do." Enzo said and left the two of them alone.

"Well then," Gernia G. smiled at K-Sha. "Let us begin."

To be continued...

* * *

Apparently I've been spelling Gernia G.'s name wrong. It's supposed to be Gerenia G. I was going by how it was pronounced, whoops! Oh well, too late to change it now. (I'm too lazy to change it)

But man, that was a heavy chapter.


	47. Day of Black Destruction

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 40

Later in the morning...

"This is so cool!" Compa's eyes sparkled as she interlocked her fingers and started moving her arms up and down in a wavy motion. "I didn't realize metal parts could move so well!" She giggled as she, Linda, IF, Gust, Warechu and Chrome sat out in the lounge area of their hotel suite eating some breakfast.

"Must be some extra stuff." Linda mused, "servos and rotary motors. Not sure how it works, but that would be my guess."

"Hey, Chrome?" IF spoke up, "where's Nep and the kids?"

"Sleeping." Chrome answered her, "they had a busy night last night." She took a sip of the coffee in front of her and sighed softly. "Some bad dreams and other stuff, I think it's okay to let them rest for the day."

"I was wondering why I heard screaming last night." Warechu muttered, looking tired. He blinked as he felt a hand on his head and he turned to see Compa giving him a headpat. "C-c-c-Compa?"

She smiled at him. "Don't worry, I'm sure that things are okay, they're probably just a bit tired is all." She really hoped that was the truth and that it wasn't related to Neptune potentially being infected by the Fearicite. The thought of such a nice CPU becoming an evil monster was terrifying.

"They'll be okay, I think." Chrome told them. "We have some spare time, so why not just take a day to ourselves and relax?"

IF grimaced slightly. "Um, Linda..?" Linda looked at her in worry, "for some reason, I... My skin's hurting really bad."

"Shit, did it dry up?" Linda asked and the others looked at IF in worry. "Come on, I'll rub you down."

"Maybe we should see about getting you to some doctors with good technology to take a look at you?" Compa suggested, getting a nod from IF as she was led into the bedroom. "Um, what's the number to call?"

It was nearly twenty minutes later when an ambulance arrived at the hotel and IF was carted out with Linda following behind. Compa and Chrome got into a cab to follow after the ambulance while leaving Gust in charge of things until they knew more.

(-)

An hour later at the hospital...

IF, who was completely naked, though under a bed sheet and had a clear mask over her mouth and nose, was in the emergency room panting hard while her face was showing nothing but pain. Around her were several nurses and a doctor who were doing their best to scan her body while keeping her as comfortable as possible.

"I see," the doctor frowned as he looked over the data. "Get the samples to the labs, okay?" The nurses nodded and rushed out while the doctor looked at IF. "Miss," he spoke to her and she cracked an eye open to look at him, "I want you to try to relax as much as you can. We'll keep an eye on you, okay?"

IF nodded and closed her eyes, trying to relax and not let the pain bother her too much.

(-)

Linda had a severely worried look on her face as she fidgeted in the waiting area while Chrome and Compa kept her from freaking out and running into the emergency room. "What's taking so long?"

"Calm down," Compa told her, "Iffy's been in there for only an hour, it usually takes a lot longer than that for them to find out what's wrong."

Chrome was more concerned about finding out what was wrong with IF rather than anything else at that moment. Part of her wondered just what was wrong with IF, but another part was wondering if Neptune was okay. 'Dammit, I hate having to worry about everyone.'

"Hey, Chromey..." Compa spoke up and Chrome looked at her. "I have your number, why don't you go back to the hotel?" Chrome gave Compa a confused look and the girl smiled at her. "I know you're worried about Nep Nep and the others. It'll take a few hours to get all the information, okay? And I'm sure that the doctors will do all they can for Iffy."

Chrome nodded and got up. "Alright, I'm trusting you to keep me informed." Both Linda and Compa nodded as she left the hospital. Or at least, she wanted to but was stopped by the receptionist. "Yes?"

"We need to know where to send the bill to." The receptionist said to Chrome, who blinked several times. "After all, service isn't free."

Chrome sighed heavily as she took the paperwork. "Got an address book?" When Chrome was handed a tablet, she walked over to a nearby chair and sat down. "Sunnvabitch..." She sighed, wondering what to do. "I'm betting this is rather expensive too." Touching the tablet's screen, she went through several screens before stopping on an address that had her staring in surprise, before she chuckled in dark amusement. "Well, why not?"

After filling out the paperwork, Chrome handed it and the tablet back to the receptionist and left.

The receptionist smiled and looked at the paperwork before her blood turned cold and her face paled as she saw the billing address. "Well, this sucks." She sighed and wondered just why some serious-looking older woman just HAD to be one of THOSE types of people and put the mailing address as the Basilicom. She knew there were a few people that did this from time to time as a joke, though none of them were laughing when Black Void would show up at their doorstep with a displeased look demanding money for medical expenses.

It didn't happen very often, but when it did, well...

At least everyone got a decent laugh out of the poor idiots who decided they wanted to be visited by the CPU personally.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"Lady Uni, are you awake?" Steamax asked as he stuck his head into Uni's room.

There was a screaming noise and Steamax quickly slid back out of Uni's room as he closed the door behind him. "L-l-l-l-lady Uni! I deeply apologize! I did not mean to catch you when you were in the middle of putting on your underwear."

"I-i-i-it's okay, Steamax!" Uni cried out from behind the door as there was some shuffling going on in the room. "Just give me a minute."

"Of course!" The robot ninja nodded as he waited for Uni to give him the all clear to enter her room. 'I do admit that it was a pleasing sight at least.' He thought to himself. The soft curvature of her body, the soft coloration of her skin, the...

"Okay, you can come in now!" Uni called out. Steamax opened the door and found Uni on her bed wearing a dark tank top, leggings with a skirt over her hips and boots on her feet. "Jeez, you didn't need to scream just because you saw me in my panties." She rolled her eyes at him.

"I apologize, it's just not appropriate for me to be in the same room as you are when you're less than fully dressed." Steamax replied and he tilted his head when Uni huffed. "Is something the matter?"

"You're not even human, it's not like you're fully functional in that regard or anything." Uni's face did flush a little bit at the thought of a robot being fully functional like that.

"Ah, well, I can be upgraded if that's what you wish." Steamax said, stammering and Uni stared at him, blushing hard. "I mean, only if you wish, but that's..."

"...Let's worry about that later." Uni looked away, her face red.

"Of course." Steamax nodded and looked away nervously. "How are you feeling otherwise though, Lady Uni?"

Uni let out a slow breath and shook her head. "I... I don't know." Mental images of K-Sha's betrayal and that scary woman Gernia G. flashed through her mind. "...I thought that Noire was wrong. That caring for others wasn't wrong, but I guess..."

"If I may," Steamax interrupted her, "I think that she's lying to you." Uni gave him a confused look. "I was created, Lady Uni, right after you came into the world to watch over you in case something went wrong." Seeing her confused look, he continued on. "I do think that Lady Noire cares for you. Very much so in fact. However, you must realize that Lady Noire has many enemies within Lastation and you must know that they have used her own feelings against her." Uni gave him a confused frown and he nodded to her. "I have extensive information about Lastation since the first Void took over the nation around sixty years ago." Uni nodded as she followed along. "I chose to, of course, only follow Lady Noire's life as I felt it was the only part of Lastation's history that matters for myself and for you."

"So why do you bring this up?" Uni asked him, confused.

"Do you know the Day of Black Destruction?" Steamax asked and Uni shook her head. "That was the day that Lady Noire became Black Void, over thirty years ago." Uni motioned for Steamax to continue. "While there are not a lot of details, what is known..."

"Do you really wish to know?" A new voice stopped them and they both turned to see Noire standing in Uni's door, her eyes gleaming in the dim light, the redheaded CPU gave Uni a flat stare. "Do you really wish to know what happened on the Day of Black Destruction, Uni?"

"That is..." Uni began, unsure what Noire would tell her.

"That was the day that I slaughtered over a thousand people with my own bare hands." Noire told her. "The final death was my elder sister, Sapphire Void." She turned around to walk out of the room. "It's best that you leave it like that, Uni." She looked over her shoulder and the look she gave both Uni and Steamax had them go still. "There's no need for you to know anything more right now."

The two watched Noire storm out of the room and neither of them had anything to say to that.

As she walked away, Noire's mind traveled back in time to that fateful day.

*Flash*

"You want me to what?" Noire gave the girl in front of her a flat stare.

"Please!" The girl with short-brown hair, who was wearing tattered jeans and a dirty t-shirt, begged the black-haired CPU Candidate. "I want to save my friends Poona, Little Rain and Wyn from some bad people."

Noire narrowed her eyes at the girl. "And why should I help you, Estelle?"

"We're friends, aren't we, Noire?" Estelle smiled at her and grabbed her hands. "All you need to do is let me lead you to the gang leader's hideout."

"So you'll trade me for three of your other friends?" Noire gave Estelle an annoyed look. "And why should I do that?"

"Because it's just a ruse." Estelle said excitedly. "You'll pretend to be tied up and..." She trembled in excitement. "I'll tie you up so that it looks like you're captured. As soon as we're off the grounds, you bust out of your ropes and show everyone your legendary skills!"

Noire smirked and flicked her hair back. "Well, that sounds amusing. Why not?"

"Yay! I swear! You won't regret this!" Estelle said with a gleam in her eyes that Noire found a little disturbing.

(-)

Not much later...

"Are you sure that I need to be... Tied up like this?" Noire asked as she walked, rather uncomfortably, towards the gang hide out. "And are you sure that this is just for show? It feels kind of tight." Her arms were tied behind her back and she was thankful that this wasn't something like heavy bondage ropes.

"I'm sure. I'm sure." Estelle waved her off as she led Noire by a rope that was connected to a collar around Noire's neck.

"Okay, but... Why did you tie me up like this?" Noire whimpered and Estelle gave her a confused look.

"The ropes that are tied around your body don't make it hard for you to walk!" The green-eyed girl protested. "Even if they're making your breasts jut out a little more." She blushed softly. "Besides, the shibari ropes are just for show so I can enjoy looking at you." Noire gave her an annoyed look. "They'll snap easily, I promise!"

"Fine." Noire rolled her eyes, though privately she was worried that she was tied up too tightly and couldn't escape. As they walked to the door, Estelle talked to the guard and Noire struggled a bit to try and get free. 'What is with this rope? It's really strong.' Her sister had warned her not to trust the people and after the problems with Moru and Resta, Noire was inclined to believe her. But she couldn't deny that she wanted friends and that she wanted people to be close to her.

"Come on in." Estelle said as she pulled Noire into the hideout. As she was led into a large room with lots of people in it, Noire was starting to get a little worried. "Vio! Ein Ai! I kept my end of the deal!"

"Ah, excellent," Ein Ai, a woman with short blonde hair, save for one long ponytail and was wearing black shorts and a gray shirt, said softly while Vio, a fair skinned woman with green hair and red eyes, who was wearing thigh-high boots with short shorts and a tight shirt over her large breasts, walked up beside her. "Good job, Estelle."

"So..." Noire began slowly, getting a bad feeling, "what will happen to her friends? Poona, Little Rain and Wyn." When everyone started to laugh, a feeling of dread filled her body. "...You tricked me, didn't you?"

"Sorry," Estelle grinned a little nervously. "It was the only way I could get into the gang."

"Well, to be fair," Vio said from right behind Estelle, "you were never going to join our gang. We just wanted to use you."

Before Estelle could react, Vio pulled out a gun and blasted her in the back of the head, twice and the brown-haired girl staggered forward before falling flat on her face.

Noire stared at Vio. "You..."

"The only thing that matters in this world is power." Vio said to Noire and pointed the gun at her, putting it right between the CPU Candidate's eyes. "Everything else is superfluous."

Noire's pupils shrank as she trembled. "You betrayed her. She betrayed me... Nothing... Nothing matters in this world." Tears fell out of her eyes as the air crackled and the ropes around her disintegrated as she was bathed in a black light while red lightning crackled around her.

When the light ended, Noire no longer existed. In her place was CPU Black Void.

"You taught me a very valuable lesson..." A large sword appeared in her hands as she cut down Vio with one strike. "In the end, nothing really matters."

*End Flash*

"Nothing matters but power. Bonds are easily broken. Trust only gets you betrayed and killed." Noire whispered softly, those lessons long since drilled into her head by the events that happened so long ago.

To be continued...

* * *

And that was the day Noire became Black Void.

...By the time I'm done with Lastation, I don't know if there will be anything to put into an Interlude: Black chapter.

In case you haven't figured it out, Gamworld Noire is Nihilistic and probably listens to too much Linkin Park.


	48. Procedure

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 41

"What's going on?" Neptune asked as she looked around. Everything around her was dim and she couldn't make out what was going on around her.

"Hello." A familiar voice spoke up and Neptune's eyes widened. "It's been too long since we last spoke."

"HISTY!" Neptune's eyes lit up happily. "Where are you at?"

"Sadly, not near you." Histoire told her.

Neptune had a trembling smile on her face. "I'm doing a good job, right, Histy? I'm being a good CPU, right?"

"...I think you have me confused with someone else." Histoire said to her. "Then again, you are a CPU that is a Heart, not a Void, so... Hmm..."

"Ignoring me?" Neptune asked and she shook her head. "It's okay, I guess I deserve it since I never listen to you much. I guess this is karna getting back at me."

"Karma, and I really am sorry." Histoire's voice was apologetic. "Both for ignoring you and for making you suffer like you have." She sighed as Neptune had a confused look on her face. "The way you've suffered while trying to save the other nations."

"Um, yeah..." Neptune scratched her cheek. "I hope you're not mad at me for not stopping Eden's destruction."

"No. In fact, I'm surprised that the nations that you have freed from the rules of their Voids have survived. Then again, I should be thankful either way."

Neptune sighed and looked down. "...I failed, Histy. Plutie's Sister... I couldn't save her." Her eyes started to well up with tears. "I'm not..."

"Um, Neptune, right?" Histoire asked and Neptune nodded. "Why are you so morose? You seemed so upbeat the last time we talked."

"...I... Hey, Histy... Can CPUs get infected by Fearicite?"

"What?!" Histoire's voice was alarmed. "What's going on since we last talked?!"

"Well... You know..." Neptune rubbed the back of her head. "This and that and now Chrome thinks I might be infected by Fearicite and..."

"Oh dear," Histoire interrupted her, "I didn't know it was possible. Please, draw upon your power, but do not transform, I need to..."

"Like this?" Neptune asked as her body started to glow.

"Yes, like... Oh no." Histoire's voice was full of dread.

"...I'm infected, huh?" Neptune asked as the glow faded. "...Will I be stuck here? Will I..."

"Huh? Oh! No! I'm sorry Neptune, but I cannot spend time with you right now. I have to deal with someone else. But to answer your question, don't let the negative feelings overwhelm you."

"Huh?" Neptune blinked at hearing that. "What do you..?"

"Fearicite is powered by negative feelings. Even a CPU's negative feelings influence the Fearicite. Whatever emotion they were feeling the strongest when they gave into the Fearicite's allure and became a Void is what they will feel the most after transforming."

"Histy?" Neptune asked softly. "What's going to happen? I'm scared."

"Just try to focus on positive emotions. That will slow down the corruption that plagues your body." She told Neptune. "I am in Planeptune. If you manage to get here, come see me and I shall explain the Fearicite, the Voids and why I put this burden on you."

Neptune nodded as she felt Histoire fade from her mind. "...Yeah..." She didn't know what was going to happen.

But what Neptune did know...

...Was that she was slowly being corrupted by the Fearicite that had infected her.

(-)

Cracking an eye open as she smelled some food, Neptune slowly sat up and rubbed her eyes. "Hnn? What time is..?"

"NEPTUNA!" Peashy yelled as she slammed the door open and tackled Neptune to the bed. "Are you okay? Did you have more bad dreams? Can Pea help?"

Neptune blinked a few times as she looked at Peashy, who was sitting on her chest. "..." She suddenly broke out into a giggle and hugged Peashy tightly. "I haven't been tackled like that in months, P-Ko. Thank you." The tackle wasn't hard like her daughter's tackles tended to be, it was more like a flying hug that caught Neptune off guard and caused her to flop onto her back out of reflex.

Peashy, for her part, was glad that her surprise hug had made Neptune happy. It was worth waiting by the door until Neptune had woken up to give her that surprise then.

"I'm fine, P-Ko," Neptune let go of the hug, "I didn't have another bad dream." There was a gurgling sound and Neptune giggled while rubbing the back of her head. "Well, maybe we should get some food?" Peashy nodded and led Neptune out of the room.

(-)

At the Basilicom...

"Kei," Noire spoke up as she looked out her window while the white-haired woman entered the room. "Have you found them yet?"

"Not yet." Kei answered her. "However, Anonydeath is tracking them as we speak. I'm sure that they'll be found before the day is out." Noire nodded at hearing that. "If I may ask. Why are you so obsessed with finding them? I thought you didn't care about your sister."

"I don't." Noire automatically answered Kei. "However, she is the future of Lastation." She turned to look at the white-haired woman. "Nothing lasts forever, not even us CPUs. I merely wish to ensure that things last when I am gone, nothing more."

Kei nodded though she gave Noire a wry grin. "It almost sounds like you care for her in your own way." She held up her hands when Noire's face showed her annoyance at that. "Please, I mean no harm by it. I think it's a good thing that you have someone that you don't hold complete disdain for."

"Whatever," Noire said dismissively. "The fact remains is that those CPUs are in Lastation and they had my sister kidnapped. I do not care if they think they're superior to me, but I won't allow them to think they can do whatever they want without repercussions."

Before Kei could respond, her phone started to ring. "My apologies." She bowed and pulled the phone out before flipping it open to speak. "Yes? Singe? What is it? Project BTH will be done tomorrow you say? Excellent. Thank you. Goodbye."

"Project BTH?" Noire asked with a raised eyebrow and Kei nodded to her.

"Yes, it's a project that Singe has been working on. When completed it will help bring in a new order to Lastation." Kei smiled at Noire. "By your leave."

"Very well." Noire nodded as Kei left her alone. "...What the hell is Project BTH?" Try as she might, she couldn't figure out what that kind of project was. "Was it something I approved?"

Try as she might, she couldn't recall anything like that getting approved.

Noire narrowed her eyes. "When this is over, I'm going to have to look into the board members and see what they're planning." She wondered why all this stuff had to be happening at the same time right now.

"Lousy humans." Noire muttered to herself. It was their hatred, resentment and fear of her big sister that brought her into the world. It was that same emotions towards her that brought her younger sister into the world. Despite this, the humans would trick, betray and manipulate those around them in an attempt to get a little bit ahead in life. "Pathetic."

Glowering at the city below, Noire felt her face twitching in annoyance.

"In the end, none of this really matters, huh?" Noire asked herself softly.

(-)

At the Lastation Hospital...

"Miss Compa! Miss Linda!" The nurse called out as she walked out of the emergency room. She smiled as the two stood up and walked over to her. "We have good news and bad news."

"What's the bad news?" Linda asked the nurse.

"It seems that recently your friend took a rather nasty blow to her arm that, due to the weakness of her skin from the severe burns she suffered when she was younger, ruptured parts of her dermis and subcutaneous layer of skin which extended down into the muscles in her arm and deeper." The nurse said and Compa nodded, a serious look on her face while Linda looked on confused. "The bad news is that the area that was injured was starting to tear itself apart, hence why she was in so much pain. We had to put a mask on her face so that she could breathe in some pain numbing medicine."

Compa nodded as she heard that. "I assume that the good news is that you can fix this?"

The nurse nodded at her. "Indeed, we hooked up a microfiber bandage to the afflicted area and she's been injected with a mild nanite solution that will mend the ruptured areas and she'll be fine in a few hours." She smiled when both of them sighed in relief. "However," both Compa and Linda looked at her nervously, "there's no guarantee that this won't happen again and as she gets older this is only going to get worse."

Linda grimaced, she knew that, but she wasn't going to put IF in some sort of home for people. She knew that would destroy her. "What should..."

"There is an option." The nurse said, looking a little nervous. "It could repair the damage to her skin. It won't do anything about the burn scars or the discoloration on her skin, but it might be able to fix the underlying issues that Miss IF is having."

"What's the catch?" Linda asked her.

"...Well..." The nurse fidgeted slightly. "The procedure's a bit experimental, but the success rate is quite high. However, it's quite... Expensive." She sighed at the looks she got from them, "believe me, I don't like it either. There's another problem as well." Both Compa and Linda tilted their heads in confusion. "Due to the fact that this is a rather... Pricey procedure, payment is due... Up front before anything can be done." She held up her hands at their looks of disbelief. "Chairman Azna=Leb's orders. While we treat everyone for things so they don't just drop dead, we can't do procedures like this without payment up front."

"...I don't know if we have enough." Linda muttered softly. "Is there anything that can be done?"

"Well," the nurse leaned in and lowered her voice, "you can set up a payment schedule to pay it off in chunks before the procedure. There's also taking out credit loans, but that'll cost you even more in the long run."

"But, she needs this!" Linda protested and was stopped as Compa gave her shoulder a squeeze. The reason she stopped was because Compa's squeeze was so hard that it nearly made her shoulder pop out of socket by accident.

"Is Iffy okay to see?" Compa asked, "or is she loopy from the pain killers?"

"She's coherent, but..." The nurse shook her head. "Well, she's not in a bad way, it's just..." She had an embarrassed look on her face. "She's in the middle of being cleaned up. She kind of lost control of some of her bodily functions when she was sleeping."

"...Oh." Compa nodded, understanding instantly. "I've had to clean my fair share of patients before." Linda grimaced as she understood what Compa was implying.

"You're a nurse?" The nurse stared at Compa's arms. "With those..?"

"I'm a doctor, actually." Compa smiled at her. "I'm from Lowee and I had this happen after I became a doctor."

"I see." The nurse nodded at her. "Well, I'm glad that you understand. Please wait another fifteen minutes for them to finish cleaning up the mess."

"Of course." Compa nodded and she and Linda went back to their seats and sat down. "Poor Iffy, it's got to be embarrassing if she knows what's going on."

Linda wasn't thinking of that. She was thinking about how IF not having severely damaged skin. The discoloration and scars were just superficial and IF probably wouldn't care about those if she could get her body back to normal health.

"You're thinking how much you're going to miss rubbing Iffy's naked body down, aren't you?" Compa teased Linda, who turned bright red at that. "It's okay. It'll be nice to not have to worry about stuff like that again."

Linda nodded and smiled softly. "Yeah..."

"Besides," Compa smiled at Linda, "now you and Iffy can cuddle all night without worrying if you'll overheat her body and dry her skin out." She giggled as Linda's blush became atomic.

Deep down, Compa was happy for Linda and IF. If the doctors could help IF out, even if it was expensive, then it would be worth it.

Besides, if worse came to worse, Compa could always try to work for the Lastation hospital and pay off the bill that way.

At least she hoped they'd let her do that.

To be continued...

* * *

...This arc is the longest one of the story (so far) and man, it's been so much fun to write.

BTW, just so we're clear. Neptune wasn't sure, before, that she was infected by Fearicite, but now she's certain that she's infected by it.


	49. Fated Meeting

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 42

Sitting at her desk, Noire narrowed her eyes at Kei. "I'm beginning to lose what little patience I have left, Kei. If Anonydeath can't track those CPUs down, I may have to rethink a few things within the organization." The tone of her voice left no doubt what she meant when she said that.

Kei gave her a disarming look. "It's been two days since Uni was rescued," privately Kei wondered just where Uni had disappeared to yesterday. She knew she could just call Anonydeath to find her, but Kei decided that it wasn't important. "And we've managed to find something interesting out..."

Noire raised an eyebrow as Kei gave her an unmarked folder. Opening it up, she felt her eye twitching. "Some OTHER practical joker decided to use the Basilicom for their billing address? I'm not a fucking charity, if they can't pay for services, it's their own damn fault."

"Yes, but look at the next page." Kei responded and smiled as Noire saw the still image of Chrome. "And if you must know, we've located where that CPU is currently staying." Noire gave her a sharp look. "The Divine Dragon Hotel."

"...If she can afford to even get through the front door..." Noire narrowed her eyes. "Well, either way." She stood up and a small grin came to her face. "I think I'll pay her a visit. Any other information I should know?"

"There's others there with her. Possibly even the Planeptune CPU." Kei answered her. "Progbots and security forces are en route right now."

"And why wasn't I told?!" Noire yelled at her before running to the window and transforming while flying in the direction of the Divine Dragon Hotel.

"Because we needed time to get everything set up." Kei said softly and flipped open her phone before making some calls. "Everyone? It's time. Move into position."

(-)

At the Divine Dragon Hotel...

It was a subtle change, but Chrome nodded to Neptune as the two ate breakfast with Rom, Ram, Peashy and Filyn in the hotel room. Gust and Warechu had left to go to the hospital to be with Compa and Linda while checking on IF. While she had gotten out of the emergency room the doctors had insisted she spend a night for observation, just in case things went bad as none of them had ever seen someone with such burn damage on their bodies and survive.

When the walls to the hallway and the outside suddenly burst open and several progbots surrounded them, the two knew they were in for a fight. Neptune, who was looking outside, also noticed a bunch of flying security forces with their sirens blaring.

"SURRENDER! YOU'RE ALL UNDER ARREST!"

"What did we do?!" Rom yelled as she looked around, trying to figure out what to do next.

"This is obviously Filyn's fault." Neptune countered as she mentally counted the amount of enemies around them.

"How is this MY fault?!" Filyn yelled, her pigtails standing on end as her good eye went white and blank. "I've been with Chromey the entire time we've been here!"

"Your name rhymes with villain! So they obviously thought you were a bad guy." Neptune countered without looking at her.

"Stop joking around, this is serious." Chrome told them. 'Neptune, you REALLY need to work on your timing.' She mentally thought and flexed her fingers as her razor wire formed around her hands. "Neptune, I don't think..."

"Yeah, too small." Neptune nodded. "Even Pucchiko couldn't fight in here." Neptune looked around and pouted. "So not used to her not being here to correct me on her name."

"So..." Chrome began slowly as she shifted closer to Ram and Filyn slowly.

"...RUN!" Neptune yelled as she grabbed Peashy with one arm and Rom with the other and ran, full sprint, towards the burst in wall while sending out digital blades at the progbots in the air. Jumping from one to another, she landed on a patrol car while letting go of Rom and Peashy before turning and catching Filyn with her body. "Oooof!" Neptune grimaced and let out a cry of pain as Ram slammed into Filyn. "Chrome! Watch out!"

"No time!" Chrome yelled as she bounced off another progbot and did a dive-kick into the flying car, slamming through the front window and knocking out the driver. Before the other driver could react, Chrome kicked him in the head so hard that he slammed against the hard metal door and was out cold. "Sorry." She muttered and sat on the lap of the main driver before taking off with Neptune and the others holding on the top for dear life.

In one of the other cars, the officers looked at each other and back at the fleeing patrol car. "That was fast." The driver said.

"Fifteen seconds."

"Yeah..."

Both of them suddenly stiffened and looked at each other with blank, white eyes with black circles around them. "HEY! ALL UNITS! FOLLOW THAT PATROL CAR AND SHOOT IT OUT OF THE SKY!"

"WAAAAAGH!" The CPU Candidates all yelled out as they were shot at while Neptune fired back with several digital blades at the progbots.

Bobbing and weaving to try and avoid blasts, Chrome grimaced, both from the fact that her head was pressed up against the roof of the vehicle and the fact that sitting on this man's lap was quite... Uncomfortable at the current position. 'If I live through this I'm going to have to...'

"CHROMEY!" Filyn yelled out in fright as a spray of bullets were emptied into the patrol car they were on, rupturing the engines and sending the car plummeting to the ground below.

"WE'RE FALLING!" Neptune yelled as they disappeared to the city below.

(-)

Sighing as she walked through the lower levels of Lastation, Uni wondered just what she was going to do. She knew that she had to talk to K-Sha again, though it would most certainly be at gunpoint, to find out just why the other girl would betray her.

"Well, well, well..." Some rather... Ugly punks came out of an alleyway and Uni sighed as she found herself quickly surrounded. "A cute girl all alone? And in our territory no less."

"I'll ask you now..." Uni began, her vermilion colored eyes glaring holes into the punks, "will you let me go willingly or will you try to cause problems?"

"Oooh!" One of the other punks said and Uni found herself surrounded by them. "We got a tough girl here. Maybe we should rough her up to show her where she stands?"

Uni suddenly smiled sweetly. "Well, golly gee, it looks like you won't let me go willingly. Oh well." Before they could react to her sudden change of personality, Uni crossed her arms over her chest and an Uzi appeared in each hand. Uncrossing her arms and pulling the triggers, she let out a spray of bullets as she spun around in place while twisting her body and moving her arms while filling the gang members full of holes.

As the last one dropped to the ground dead, Uni scoffed at them and blew on the barrels of her guns before putting them away. "Pathetic. At least TRY to show a girl a good time when you want to have fun with her, huh?" She winked and stuck her tongue out.

As she put her guns away, Uni walked off, knowing that there would be some people around to clean up the dead bodies soon. Sure, it was cruel and cold, but Uni wasn't feeling particularly merciful after being betrayed, captured and experimented on. 'Well, I could have been dissected or turned into a cyborg.' She shuddered at the thought of losing her sense of self. People who had cybernetic implants to replace lost limbs or fix failing body parts like hearts, eyes or ears were one thing. That was pretty tame and wasn't bad. However people who had their whole bodies remodeled and turned into cyborgs bothered her.

Not only was it not natural, but there were plenty of documented cases of people who were turned into cyborgs who lost all sense of self and free will.

Personally, the CPU Candidate of Lastation couldn't imagine anyone who would want to turn into a cyborg.

After walking for several minutes Uni stopped and looked around in confusion as she heard loud thunder and a creaking sound in the distance. "What the hell?" She asked, looking around.

"Move! Move! Move move move move!"

"HUH!?" Uni's eyes widened as she turned and looked up a moment before something crashed into her at high speeds and flattened her to the ground.

"Oww, oww, oww..." The person that crashed into her groaned and pushed herself up. "Jeez! Chrome needs to watch for air turbulence when we're crashing." Hearing a groan, the person looked down and jumped back and off of Uni. "Nep wha?!"

"...That hurt you know." Uni groaned as she slowly sat up. "What's the big idea, crashing on me like that? And who are you?"

The girl in front of her blinked a few times before smiling and suddenly laughing. "Man! I keep crashing onto tsunderes for some reason." She laughed while Uni narrowed her eyes in annoyance. "Sorry, sorry. My name's Neptune and I..."

There was a sound of a falling object as a flying patrol car, which was on fire, crashed onto the street and slid several feet away from them.

"Chrome!" Neptune yelled and ran to the patrol car. "Rom! Ram! P-Ko! Filyn! Are you all okay?"

"Nnngh!" A blonde girl groaned as she slid off the top of the patrol car. "Neptuna, that wasn't fun." Two brown haired girls, one with long hair and one with short hair followed after her.

"Rom!" Neptune ran to the girl as she saw the cuts on her hands and side. "Hold on." She reached into her inventory and pulled out a small bottle. "This is a healing drink, it'll heal your cuts."

"Thanks, big sis." Rom smiled as she drank it and sighed as the cuts vanished. "I'm fine though. It didn't hurt as much as when that monster hurt me before."

Neptune pulled Rom into a hug and patted her. "Rom, it's never okay. If you're hurt, it's okay to cry about it, okay?" Rom nodded. "And I won't let you get hurt like you used to ever again, okay?"

"Dang it." Chrome muttered as she pulled the unconscious officers from the burning vehicle.

"Here." Uni offered Chrome as she helped her get the officers away from the burning vehicle. "Rather unusual for people who aren't security forces to be driving one of their vehicles." Uni casually commented to Chrome. "Unless you happen to be criminals of some sort."

"If we were, why would we bother pulling them from the vehicle?" Chrome countered. The next thing any of them heard was the sound of something ripping through the air as several things struck the downed patrol car, causing it to explode and sending everyone flying away from it.

"Oww!" Uni groaned as she sat up, shook her head and looked up to see dozens of Progbots swarming their position from the sky. "Uh... This isn't normal."

"Really?" Chrome asked as she stood up and she snapped her arms to the side as wires formed around her fingers. "Feels like that time when I accidentally walked into a Griffon nest." The worst part about that was those Griffons were overly aggressive and needed to be put down.

It hadn't made the resulting fight for her life any easier or better though.

"Aw man!" Neptune cried out as she saw the flaming wreckage. Standing up she pointed at the Progbots! "Hey! Watch it, buddy! You could have really hurt someone like that!"

"Talking to them won't help matters any, Neptune." Chrome muttered as she looked around. "...This is a lot more than I had anticipated."

**_"YOU ARE ALL UNDER ARREST. FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN TERMINATION."_** One of the progbots told them.

"But I don't want to go back to jail!" Neptune whined. "The last time I went to jail I got molested and the time before that I was thrown in prison because the country was taken over by baddies!" She tapped her chin. "Should I count when I died? I ended up in Hell, does that count as prison?"

"Now's not the..." Chrome began before a black and blue streak zipped through the air and slammed into the ground, silencing them and causing the Progbots to stop moving while the security forces themselves seemed to get still at the introduction.

When the dust cleared, everyone stared at the CPU in front of them. Eyes that glowed vermilion in color, white hair with red tips, sclera that was as black as her upside down power symbol in each eye, a rather revealing body suit, several wings and a tell-tale hole in her chest above her breasts. "Well..." She spoke, her voice rather regal and dripping with arrogance. "About time I met the CPUs of Eden and Planeptune."

"Woah, Noire?!" Neptune gawked at what Noire was wearing. "Okay, I know you wear some pretty skimpy cosplays when you think no one's looking, but this is something I'd expect from Vert, not you." She certainly wasn't complaining about seeing Noire's bare thighs, shoulders, sides and her under-boobs though.

"You're the CPU of this nation, I assume?" Chrome asked as the CPU nodded and pulled out a large sword.

"CPU Black Void." She took one look at Uni and then turned her full attention to Neptune. "I wonder, what would a CPU from another nation be doing here. But then it occurred to me... You're probably here to assassinate me."

Holding up a finger, Neptune shook her head. "That's not..." Neptune trailed off as she slowly lowered her finger. "I mean..." She sweat-dropped as she thought about what happened in Lowee and Leanbox. "Um, Chrome..?" She turned her head and looked at Chrome. "Are we the bad guys here?"

Chrome slapped her hand to her forehead. "Neptune!" She pointed at Black Void. "Void! Bad thing!"

"Oh!" Neptune giggled and slapped her forehead. "Right, sorry."

"Big sis, please take this seriously." Rom sweat-dropped heavily. She loved Neptune, but the CPU had some seriously bad timing with her comedy routines.

Ram and Peashy were giggling at Neptune's antics, especially with the way that Black Void was looking at Neptune oddly, as if she couldn't believe that she was like this.

"...Are you for real?" Black Void asked, frustration creeping into her voice. "You call yourself a CPU and this is how you act?"

"Well, if I try to take things too seriously, people get worried about me for some reason." Neptune answered her.

"Besides..." Black Void narrowed her eyes at Neptune. "If I'm a bad guy, what does that make someone who threatens security officers and sends medical bills to the Basilicom to get out of paying for treatment?"

Both Neptune and Chrome sweat-dropped at that.

Uni just looked around at the whole thing in confusion. "Wait, what's going..?" Her question was left hanging as the sky darkened. Looking up, her pupils shrank as she saw a large flying ship overhead. "The C.I.D.?" It was a massive battleship that had been built only in the past few months and Singe had boasted its ability to transverse large distances with no problems while keeping a large force of progbots and other weapons inside and ready to go.

"Well, this stinks!" Filyn muttered as she looked at it and felt like death was crawling all over her. "What's up with that thing?"

Black Void, meanwhile, looked up at the C.I.D. with her eyes narrowed. "I didn't ask for that." Scoffing, she turned to look at Neptune and pointed her sword at her. "You, weird one, I think I'm going to have to deal with you now."

Neptune looked at Black Void and saw the look on her face. "I guess so, huh?" There was something about those eyes. While they bothered her and the feeling of wrongness that she felt around Plutia, Vert and Blanc was still there...

Black Void's eyes felt almost empty. White Void's eyes had been full of rage and hate, Green Void's eyes had been so full of lust that Neptune still felt a mixture of arousal and disgust whenever she thought about them and Iris Void's eyes had a gleam of pure psychosis in them.

It was as if this Noire had stopped caring about almost everything since becoming a Void.

"...I know it doesn't matter now..." Neptune whispered softly, "but I'm sorry, Noire. Sorry that I couldn't save you." A white light bathed her body while tears rolled down her face.

"What the hell?" Black Void jerked in surprise. "Since when do CPUs transform with a white light?"

"That's because," Purple Heart said as she finished her transformation, "I am CPU Purple Heart of Planeptune." She pointed her katana at Black Void and narrowed her blue eyes at her counterpart. "I'm kind of surprised that your eyes are red even in this form."

Black Void said nothing as she rushed at Purple Heart, who charged her and their swords clashed.

"What the hell is going on?" Uni asked Chrome, who gave her a neutral look. "What's with another CPU in Lastation? What's this whole "heart" stuff? Why are they fighting?"

Chrome looked at Uni and then back at the two CPUs fighting as they took to the air. "Tell me, what's your relationship with Black Void?"

"She's my sister." Uni answered automatically. "She's kind of distant, she doesn't try to get close to me, but she's..."

"Does she abuse you?" Chrome asked and looked at her. When Uni gave her a confused look, Chrome bit her lip. "She doesn't?"

"No!" Uni glared at Chrome. "Why would she?" She looked at the Progbots and was wondering why none of them were moving to arrest anyone, instead they just seemed content to hover in the air. "What's going on?" Uni asked, wondering why they weren't moving.

"When we met the CPU Candidates of Lowee and Leanbox, all three were being tormented by the Voids of those nations." Chrome said as she felt her body tensing up for some reason. "I have a bad feeling."

"YOU have a bad feeling!?" Uni snapped as her Uzis appeared in her hands and she pointed one of them at Chrome. "Some random CPUs show up in this nation! Fight my sister! And there's an army of Progbots everywhere!"

Not far away, Rom and Ram were both casting defensive spells over themselves, Filyn and Peashy in case the robot people took shots at them.

"I don't like this." Filyn muttered as she held her staff in one hand while Ram cast some offensive supports onto her and her staff.

"Me neither." Ram said, shivering as she looked at everything that was happening. "This is scary."

(-)

As she flew through the air and twisted around digital blades that were sent her way, Black Void spun around and launched herself at Purple Heart while batting the blades away. The two locked blades again and Black Void found, to her annoyance, that Purple Heart was not only capable of blocking her attack, but not even flinching at it.

"Answer me this, Black Void," Purple Heart spoke up as she pushed Black Void away from her, trying to knock her off balance, but Black Void went with the momentum and spun around enough to get her sword back into position to block Purple Heart's downward strike. "What's your malfunction?" Black Void gave her a confused look. "I've faced three other Voids." She said as she pushed against Black Void's sword, both of their arms trembled and shook as they exerted force against each other. "White Void was an angry and hateful monster that beat her sisters, Green Void was a perverted mess that was going to execute her sister and Iris Void was so psychotic that she not only killed her sister but all the people of her nation." Whatever reaction she was expecting from Black Void, she didn't get.

"The fuck?!" Black Void gawked at Purple Heart and stopped pushing against her blade and instead let Purple Heart's strength push her away. "What kinds of idiots would do something like that?"

Purple Heart hovered there, blinking at Black Void in surprise. "...I, uh, was kind of expecting you to say you beat puppies or something."

"Waste of time." Black Void countered and flew up into the air. "I'm too busy dealing with gangs, criminals and other scum to do crap like that."

Before Purple Heart could ask her what she meant, Black Void's sword started to glow brightly. 'SHIT!' Purple Heart swore as Black Void swung her sword at Purple Heart.

"Cyclone Strike!" Unlike Black Heart's Tornado Sword, which was a strike of energy, this Cyclone Strike was a blast of wind that lashed out at Purple Heart and sent her flying into a nearby building. Letting out a huff, Black Void rushed in at Purple Heart, who was pulling herself off of the building.

'You knew she'd be hard to beat.' Purple Heart thought to herself and launched herself at Black Void. "Cross Combination!" She had to admit, she was impressed as Black Void parried and blocked her flurry of attacks before twisting around her final part of the attack to kick her in the stomach, sending Purple Heart flying back.

"Is that all you've got?" Black Void narrowed her eyes at Purple Heart. "It makes me wonder how you survived against the other Voids of the world if you can't handle me."

"Not at all!" Purple Heart threw her hand back as she righted herself and launched two large digital blades at Black Void, who scoffed at her as the two floating USB connectors suddenly turned and pointed at Purple Heart before letting out two streams of energy, blasting the swords and turning them into particles of energy.

"You look so surprised." Black Void casually commented to Purple Heart. "Did you think that I wouldn't have any sort of long-range capacity?"

"A little, I admit." Purple Heart said as she floated forward, a small smirk on her face. "Though I would be far more disappointed if you didn't have some way to defend yourself at long range."

"Feh..." Black Void sneered and zipped towards Purple Heart as stabbed forward with her blade, only to have it parried by Purple Heart.

"Blaze Break!" Purple Heart declared as her sword lit up in flames.

"Frozen Order!" Black Void countered as her blade was covered in ice.

When their blades clashed with a dull ring, much like with Iris Void, their elemental powers were blasted back at the user.

While their elements were blasting them in the face, Purple Heart twisted her body and spun while getting behind Black Void and drove her foot into the small of Black Void's back, sending her flying into another building, kicking up dust and dirt, obscuring her vision of the other CPU. "I have to admit, Black Void, you're not bad." Purple Heart smirked, which increased as the dust cleared and revealed Black Void, completely unharmed.

'Hate to admit it, but...' Black Void felt a small grin coming to her face. "I'm kind of enjoying myself." Pulling herself free from the building, she launched herself at Purple Heart again, their swords clashing in a test of skill, speed and over-all ability once more.

'It's strange...' Purple Heart thought to herself as she twisted out of the way of a stab to her chest.

'...I feel so free right now.' Black Void thought to herself as her hip blasters fired quick and rapid shots at Purple Heart to make her dodge.

"But still..." Purple Heart began, fiery determination in her eyes.

"I can't lose." Black Void whispered to herself as the two flew in circles around each other, trying to find the best vantage point to attack.

"I will win!" Both CPUs yelled as they charged each other again.

To be continued...

* * *

Hey! It's about time these two finally meet and fight. Noire isn't in a mood to talk right now. Let's hope she can be reasoned with.

Also, gotta love Futurama references.


	50. Begin Operation

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 43

Aboard the C.I.D., Singe smiled as he sat in the cockpit. "Things are starting to get good, aren't they?" A beeping sound caught his attention and he pushed a button and saw two screens pop up as Mr. Badd and Azna=Leb both appeared on screen. "Are you both in position? Kei did make us hurry on this."

"I am." Mr. Badd said and smirked as he looked to the side. "My media crews are ready to record the exact moment we make our move. Azna=Leb?"

Chuckling, the redheaded man grinned at the other two. "We're ready here too. Gernia G. was most useful. And you, Singe?"

"The reactor's ready to go." The older man replied to his counterpart.

"Well then, everyone," Anonydeath appeared on the screen, "let operation dog collar begin."

"Yes." The other three said as the screens turned off and Singe pushed a button on his chair.

(-)

The progbots, which had been silently watching Purple Heart and Black Void fight, suddenly turned to look at Peashy, Rom, Ram, Filyn, Chrome and Uni, their eyes glowing brightly.

"MOVE!" Chrome yelled as the arms of the progbots suddenly morphed into cannon arms and fired at them at everyone. Thankfully the Candidates were all quick on their feet and moved, as did Chrome. "Blasted robots!" She yelled and swung her arms to the side, wrapping up the nearest progbot and pulled on it hard. When the thing snapped her razor wires with ease, her eyes widened. "Shit!" Those wires were made of divine material and capable of cutting through quite a bit.

The fact that the nearest progbot had only a few scratches on its body was... Disquieting to say the least.

"Ah crap, did they malfunction?" Uni asked while firing a bunch of bullets at one and she stared as the bullets seemingly bounced off with no effect. "Okay, fine!" She put her Uzis away and pulled out a large single barreled rifle before jumping away and onto a ledge of a nearby building. "Alright, suck this, bitch!" She pulled the trigger and a powerful blue beam of energy laced out, shredding the head of the progbot, destroying it. "Yes!"

She was forced to jump and run as several of the progbots turned to her and started firing concentrated blasts at her. "Crap!"

Uni landed on another building and fired a shot at one of the progbots, decapitating it. She turned her head and noticed Chrome holding a rather fancy and ornate staff and used it to knock one of the progbots on its back and she then smashed the head of the progbot in. "That looks like a CPU weapon." After all, it was too ornate and weird looking to be anything but a CPU weapon.

Plus anything that could smash a progbot that easily had to be one.

(-)

"Smashy smashy!" Peashy yelled as she ripped a street sign out of the ground, much to the shock of the onlookers who were observing from what they hoped was a safe distance away, and slammed it into a progbot, sending it flying into another progbot.

Not far away, Rom was dodging blasts as best she could. Those that she couldn't dodge were slamming into her barrier. Ducking into an alleyway, Rom panted and was thankful that Neptune had taught her the importance of being able to attack and defend. "Okay, let's show big sis how good I've gotten!" A staff formed in her hands as she pointed it at the progbots and it started to crackle with power. "Thunder..." Her eyes flashed as lighting seemingly crackled from them. "BLIZZARD!" A cyclone of winds, snow, ice and electricity erupted forth, engulfing several progbot and consuming them in an eruption of power that exploded into a crystal flower.

Rom stared at her handiwork. "...That's so neat!" She hadn't intended for the spell to end up like that, but she wasn't going to complain.

Not far away, Ram was running around the corner and slid to a stop so hard that she fell on her butt as she saw several progbots marching towards her. "B...Bu...Burning Typhoon!" A magic stick appeared in each hand and she crossed them in front of her as a tornado of fire erupted in front of her and whipped forward, engulfing several progbots and either melting them or sending them flying away. "Wow! I did it!" She smiled brightly and got up. "Big sis will, YEEEK!" She cried out as progbots walked through the dissipating fire and turned to run when she saw plenty of more progbots marching towards her from that direction. "Help!"

Suddenly a bunch of stakes erupted from the ground, striking the progbots in front of her from the ground and Ram yelped, but didn't question it as she ran past the incapacitated progbots and saw Filyn standing back up after recovering from her attack. "Filyn!"

"Hey! I can't judge distance for anything, but I can hit a general area." The one-eyed girl smiled at Ram, who pointed her magic sticks behind Filyn, causing a small explosion and sending a flying progbot to crash to the ground. Before it could react, a blue beam tore through where its head was and they turned to see Uni pointing her gun at another progbot and firing it.

"YOU TWO! Keep them off of me and I'll take them out!" Uni cried out and then looked at Peashy and where the ice tornadoes were coming from. "You two as well! Don't let them shoot me and I can take them out!"

(-)

Down the street, Chrome nodded and used her razor wire to rip a manhole cover out of the street before launching it at one of the progbots. "Well, shit, I'll be overwhelmed here." She muttered and turned to run towards the others and bring the progbots with her.

(-)

In the air, Purple Heart charged at Black Void. "Blaze..." Her eyes widened as she saw Black Void's attention waver. It was enough that she couldn't react to what Purple Heart was doing.

"Dammit!" Black Void cursed as the flaming sword got too close to her. She grimaced and prepared for pain to engulf her as the sword was within spitting distance.

When the pain never came and the flames gutted out, she blinked a couple of times before flinching at how close Purple Heart was to her. "Why didn't you take the shot? I would have."

"You were distracted..." Purple Heart's eyes looked in the direction that Black Void was looking. "...Your sister?"

Black Void snarled and batted Purple Heart's katana away with her sword before floating backwards. "So what? What I do with her is on me, not you." Her snarl became a confused frown as she saw Purple Heart looking at her, not with anger, contempt or even confusion, but rather contemplation.

"...Tell me something, Black Void, you said that abusing your sister is a waste of time." Purple Heart began, wondering if she was about to step on a landmine, considering that the other two Noires she knew were all tsunderes, she wondered if this Noire was just as bad of a tsundere as the others were. She dismissed those thoughts and decided the only way to know for sure would be to just ask. "Do you, perhaps, care for her?"

Black Void rolled her eyes. "Care is too strong of a word, Purple... Heart, was it?" Purple Heart nodded and she scoffed at the other CPU. "What makes you think I care about anything? I'm a Void!" Her eyes narrowed as both her hip blasters fired at Purple Heart, forcing the purple CPU to fly back and twist out of the way to dodge. "I am CPU Black Void! I have no heart or positive emotions such as caring for others!"

Purple Heart snapped a few energy blades into reality and launched them at Black Void, forcing her to blast or dodge to deal with them. "I think you're lying to me!" Purple Heart yelled as her sword erupted with fire and she swung it out, sending several balls of fire towards the other CPU. "If you didn't care, you wouldn't have looked down at her like you did!"

"And what would you know?" Black Void snarled at Purple Heart as she rushed in, her sword clashing with Purple Heart as the two zigged and zagged around each other with the occasional energy sword and energy beam firing between them. "What would you know about having a little sister when you're surrounded by enemies?"

Purple Heart jerked in surprise even as she blocked Black Void's version of her Noire's Lacy Dance attack. "Noire?" She asked softly, her voice almost unable to believe what she was hearing.

Black Void snarled as she blasted Purple Heart into the air. "If you think you can criticize me over how I treat my sister, you're welcome to do so when everyone around you either wants you dead, enslaved or their own personal pet."

Purple Heart couldn't say anything. As she listened to Black Void, there was something there that gave Purple Heart pause.

'Why? Why do I feel like this?' Purple Heart asked herself while she swung her sword up to block a downward strike from Black Void. 'Why does it feel like you're crying out for help, Noire?'

(-)

In the C.I.D., Singe frowned and pushed a button. "Azna=Leb, where are you?"

"Ready to move."

Singe grinned as he watched the progbots fall. Even if this was a failure for his machines, he was getting back valuable data. "Especially from that little bitch." He narrowed his eyes as the screen focused in on Uni. He didn't know if they had given her an anti-Nanite solution, but he knew that there were a few nanites in her body still as he was still getting data from her. "Well, Black Void, I hope you enjoy the rest of your life." He chuckled softly. "One way or another, if that CPU doesn't kill you..." He resisted the urge to lick his lips in anticipation. "Your little sister will."

And even if she managed to survive both events, which was unlikely, she wouldn't be able to resist what they did to her next.

(-)

Uni's pupils shrank as a progbot came rushing at her, avoiding the various attacks from the others. "Too fast!" She gasped as it was right on top of her.

Suddenly three shots rang out in the street, which was followed by three explosions on the progbot, sending it to the ground.

"What the?" Uni asked as she jumped away from where she was sitting and landed on the ground. "Who did that?"

"I told you, didn't I, Uni?" A familiar, though distorted voice, spoke up. Turning slowly, Uni's face got progressively more pale as she saw a single glowing red eye from the alleyway walk out into the street, revealing K-Sha, though for some reason she was wearing a hooded cloak that concealed most of her body. "That my bullets were explosive-tipped."

"K-Sha..." Uni breathed out and looked around as the area was suddenly filled with people in skin-tight body suits and black visors over their eyes, obscuring details. "What's going on?"

K-Sha smiled and pulled her cloak off, revealing to Uni that she was wearing a similar outfit. "I'm here for revenge, Uni." Her eyes glowed red as she held a handgun in each hand. "And you and your sister will suffer." Her voice seemed a little off as he pointed her guns at Uni.

Uni growled as she made her cannon disappear into her inventory and pulled out her Uzis. "Don't think that I've forgotten or forgiven you for that stunt you pulled back in the elevator." She proclaimed while pointing her Uzis at K-Sha. "To think I ever thought we could be friends."

"Being a part of AZL, I don't need friends." K-Sha answered her. "It doesn't matter. You're going to die."

"We'll see!" Uni yelled as both girls pulled the triggers on their guns at the same time.

To be continued...


	51. Confrontations

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 44

Both Uni and K-Sha had moved the instant that they pulled their triggers, jumping to the side as bullets filled the air and ripped through where they had been just moments ago.

K-Sha quickly rolled to her knees and fired several explosive shots at Uni, who ran into the nearby alley as trash cans, parts of the building and even a cat exploded...

...The last one rather messily.

K-Sha sneered and ran into the alleyway after Uni. "Are you really that mad at me for turning you over to master Enzo?" K-Sha asked as her eyes scanned the alleyway. Not seeing Uni, she looked up to see if the CPU Candidate had taken to the air.

"Considering that I fed you and listened to your problems, I'd say I have a right to be upset." Uni's voice came from right behind K-Sha. The girl's eyes widened and she spun around to see...

Empty space, with some Progbots and others of the organization fighting the others further to the back. "What?"

"It's called voice projection." Uni's voice came from above her and K-Sha took a step back and didn't see anyone. "It's pretty useful."

"Stop hiding you, coward!" K-Sha growled as her eyes started to gleam while looking around. "Go ahead and hide, I'll find you anyway." She declared while running into the alleyway.

When K-Sha turned to her left and ran down the intersection, the air near the entrance to the alleyway shimmered and Uni stepped away from the wall, sighing in relief. 'Good thing she didn't look to the right.' She thought to herself and looked at her wrist. "Thanks, Steamax." She smiled as she thought back to a couple of days ago.

*Flash*

Looking at the blue ninja robot, Uni had a determined look on her face. "I want you to be with me when I take that bitch down for what she did to me."

"Lady Uni," Steamax began, "you know that giving into your negative emotions might trigger your transformation into a Void." He stepped back as she growled at him. "But, just in case, I do have something for you."

Uni stopped growling and held out her wrist when he asked. She blushed softly as he gently pulled her gloves off and then slipped a watch-like device over her wrist before putting her glove back on. "This is..?"

"A superior cloaking device." Steamax answered her. "Most can be spotted by several clues if one knows what to look for. Even scanners can, if advanced enough, see through stuff like that. However, this is far more advanced, even my scanners can't pierce it. But it's still not perfect, but it should protect against most detection methods."

Uni smiled and hugged him. "Thanks, Steamax."

*End Flash*

"Still..." Narrowing her eyes, Uni reactivated the device and ran after K-Sha. As she turned the corner, a shot rang out and a bullet nearly clipped Uni's ear.

K-Sha stood at the other end of the alleyway, her eyes glowing blue and green. "Spectral scans a success." K-Sha intoned and fired another shot at Uni, this time she clipped the stealth device, causing Uni to appear in front of her normally.

"What the hell?" Uni pointed her Uzis at K-Sha. "You... You're a cyborg?"

"Master Enzo decided that I wasn't good enough, so he had Gernia G. remodel me." K-Sha said, as if it wasn't a big deal and fired at Uni, who twisted to the side as the bullet went past her and exploded while hitting the far wall behind her. "As a bonus, I now have enough physical abilities to destroy you."

"Remodel?" Uni muttered softly, before her eyes widened in horror. "No! She didn't... To remodel someone means..."

"Yes," K-Sha nodded and fired another bullet, even as Uni jumped into the air. "I was dissected, had my organs removed and replaced with superior cybernetics and weapons systems." She smiled at Uni. "Isn't it great, Uni? Even if you get away from me, I can hunt you forever. Because, even if you are a Goddess, you still need to rest and eat. But now that I'm a cyborg, I never need rest or food." A spray of bullets tore into K-Sha, who merely jerked from them.

"You gave up your humanity?!" Uni yelled as she jumped into the air. "For what?! Some misguided attempt at revenge?!" She twisted and bent, even in mid-air, as K-Sha fired back at her.

"I guess you could say that this is my Void transformation." K-Sha told her. "After all, to become a Void means you have to give up your heart." She smirked at the look on Uni's face. "Just like your stupid bitch of a sister."

Uni snarled at her as she got close to a wall and used it to launch herself at K-Sha. "DON'T CALL HER THAT!" She screamed as she tackled K-Sha to the ground and both tumbled over and over before sliding out of the alleyway and back onto the street. "She's got more of a heart than you ever did!"

The two tumbled for a bit and Uni ended up on top of K-Sha as they came to a halt.

Uni grabbed K-Sha's wrists and pinned them above the cyborg's head. "Listen you, I won't..." She stopped as she felt K-Sha move and shift, pushing up and off the ground, forcing Uni to put her feet on K-Sha's chest and push off to jump away.

K-Sha fired more shots at Uni, who twisted, spun and dodged each one. "You're pretty good."

Uni narrowed her eyes as she put her Uzis away and pulled out a short barreled gun. "Let's go, Ash." She pulled the trigger and K-Sha was blasted and launched across the street. Uni gently rubbed the barrel of the gun. "How do you like my boomstick, you bitch!?"

K-Sha slid to a stop and got up as her outfit tore open, revealing her skin was in chunks and under said chunks of skin were metal and wires.

"...You really did it." Uni sighed softly and shook her head. "Fine, I'll put you out of your misery personally!"

K-Sha's eyes glowed as she pointed her guns at Uni and fired again. "You'll die trying!"

(-)

Ram let out a shriek of fright as two girls, both with slender bodies and identical body suits and visors over their faces rushed at her. One of them had an electrical whip in her right hand while the other one had a tonfa in each hand. "D...Don't... STAY AWAY!" She yelled and blasted out with a burst of wind, knocking the two away from her, but they were replaced by two more, these ones were male with one of them having a flaming sword and the other one had a staff in his hands. "R...Rom! Big Sis! Someone! HELP!" Ram trembled as she fired another blast at them, but these ones were able to dodge it and dove in close to Ram.

The little girl was able to avoid the attack from the tonfa, but she cried out as the whip cracked against her back, shredding her clothes, leaving a mark on her back and sending her falling onto her face.

Ram pushed herself up, her eyes sparkling as she felt a breeze over her back. "These clothes..." She growled and stood up. "Were given to me by my big sister..." Winds and fire erupted around Ram as she trembled while her shirt fell mostly apart, leaving her in tatters. "AND YOU RUINED IT!" She screamed while energy flowed around her. "INFERNO CATACLYSM!"

While her Burning Typhoon attack had been a tornado of fire, this was nothing less than an out-of-control maelstrom of fire and wind that quickly turned progbots into slag, burned the rest of Ram's outer clothes away and was damaging the buildings around her. In her anger, Ram didn't care about the injuries she was causing her attackers. "These were from big sis! How dare you ruin the clothes she got for me!?" Tears fell from her eyes but were evaporating quickly in the heat around her. "My big sister got me these with her love! How..." Her eyes widened and her pupils shrank as a memory of just after Neptune became her big sister came to her.

*Flash*

Ram looked bit her lip as Neptune bandaged her arm up. She had tried to climb a tree to look around and had fallen down, crashing into some rocks. "Um, big sis... Why didn't you hurt the people when they were asking for me and Rom to die?"

Rom, who was sitting on a nearby rock, looked at Neptune curiously.

"Because," Neptune began, "a CPU, a Goddess, should never give into their worst emotions and try to get revenge on humans because they wronged us." She sighed at the looks they gave her. "I knew two CPUs who lost themselves to their hate and anger towards humans and both tried to destroy the world." Rei had tried to destroy the Hyper and Ultra Dimensions and Kurome had tried to take it a step further with her attempt to crash the Zero and Heart Dimensions into the Hyper Dimension while using her and her friends to create Dark CPUs to do horrible things to the multiverse. "I know it's hard." She gave them a small smile. "I've had my nation taken away from me by a human. It turns out that she did it by accident and now we're friends."

"...You're friends with someone who stole your nation?" Ram asked, getting a nod from Neptune.

"But that... That seems so..." Rom frowned in confusion. "Why? Big sis? Why?"

"Because you're a Goddess." Neptune told her. "You have super amazing powers and you're supposed to use them to protect and guide people. You should never hurt humans for no good reason."

Both Rom and Ram looked at each other with uncertainty, but both of them nodded, trusting Neptune's instructions. After all, she was an actual Goddess, so she would know better than them.

*End Flash*

Ram gasped as her spell gutted out. "Oh no! I tried to hurt people because they ruined the clothes big sis got me." She put her hands to her mouth and looked on in horror at the people who were laying on the street and barely moving. "What did I..?" The girl, who was now just in her panties, yelped as two people pounced on her, grabbing her arms and legs and lifting her up. "What are you, OWWW!" She cried out as they pulled on her arms and legs to the side in an attempt to pull them away from her body. "STOP IT! OWW!" She cried out in pain as she felt her body screaming at her with how much pain she was feeling. "IT HURTS! STOP!" Tears fell from her eyes. "Big sis..." She sobbed when suddenly she was dropped to the ground as she was covered in blood and wires.

"Get away from her, you bastards." Chrome growled as her razor wires were covered in blood as the ones who tried to rip Ram apart were split into bloody chunks. "What are you doing, Ram?!"

"But..." Ram sniffled and cradled her arms and legs close to her. "I'm not supposed to hurt humans. Big sis said so."

"For no good reason!" Chrome told her as she spun around and swung her arm out in a wide arc, cutting three more of the bastards apart while throwing her staff like a missile at one who was trying to get the drop in on Ram, sending him flying while the staff dropped next to Ram. "If they're trying to harm you and you can't make them stop with a quick show of power, then you have the right to fight back."

"Really?" Ram asked, getting a nod from Chrome. "I won't become a Void then?"

"Even if you lose your temper like you did," Chrome said while looking at the girl, who was sitting there in her underwear. "I promise you, you won't become a Void for losing your temper like that. You need to feel nothing but hate, anger and other negative emotions after all."

Ram let out a sigh of relief as she got up and blushed hard. "Um..."

"First priority," Chrome said as she ran over to her staff and picked it up while slicing another one of those cyborgs apart. "Stay alive. Second priority, make sure your team stays alive. Everything else, including your modesty, comes after that."

"Um..." Ram looked at Chrome, who sighed.

"I'll tell you about the times I ended up fighting monsters butt naked when I was a CPU Candidate later!" Chrome snapped at her. "Just keep yourself alive and remember." She smashed a girl that got too close to her down the street and into a far building. "If they don't retreat after being intimidated, you can maim them. Killing them..." Chrome narrowed her eyes. "In this case, they aren't humans anymore. They're robots or something."

Ram nodded and blushed while she fought in her underwear, but at least she was able to focus more on the enemies after Chrome gave her that pep talk.

In the sky, unnoticed to the fighters below, explosions erupted across the sky in and around the buildings.

(-)

Singe narrowed his eyes as he watched the fights unfold. "I have to say, these CPUs from the other lands are quite impressive." A video screen of Kei appeared in front of him and he gave her an expectant look. "Yes?"

"It's time." Kei said softly. "It's time to create a weapon for the future of Lastation. One that's loyal to us."

"Of course." Singe grinned as he pushed a button and Azna=Leb's face popped up on the screen. "It's time. Get your personal toy into position and have her put the collar on."

(-)

On the top of a random building, not far from the action...

Azna=Leb nodded and pushed a button on the watch on his left arm. "K-Sha."

"Yes, Master Enzo?" K-Sha asked him over the communication.

"It's time. Put the collar on her."

"Yes." She said as the communication ended.

"I see," a voice from behind Azna=Leb spoke up and the redheaded man turned to see Steamax just a few feet away from him, "you are the one that Uni told me about, the one in charge of AZL." He narrowed his eyes and took a stance. "You are also part of Noire's inner council. I shall deal with you personally."

Azna=Leb chuckled as there was a flash of light and he was covered in a power armor, complete with a large sword and a cape. "Come then, Steamax. Allow me, as Affimojas, to deal with you."

Steamax was silent as he looked at the towering, imposing figure in front of him. "...Part of me wonders why I'm feeling some trepidation. But if you wish to fight me, then I shall oblige!"

The two jumped at each other, their weapons clashing as they got close to each other.

(-)

Meanwhile...

K-Sha threw her guns to the side and ran, full speed, at Uni, who tried to jump away, only to find K-Sha in her face. Before Uni could react, a hole in K-Sha's chest opened up and something was launched at the CPU Candidate, latching onto her neck before snapping shut. "Got'cha..." K-Sha grinned slowly. "Bitch."

"What?" Uni asked, before gasping and screaming as the collar that K-Sha had slapped onto her suddenly started to glow and her body was covered in red energy that crackled and spasmed over her, forcing her to her knees as she screamed in pain.

"I know you probably can't hear me, but I'm going to tell you anyway..." K-Sha began as she walked towards the spasming and screaming Uni. "That collar will allow Master Enzo and his associates to control you. With that, they can make you sit up, eat, sleep and even control when you go to the bathroom." She giggled softly. "Ahh, it's so nice to see a lousy, worthless, pathetic CPU like you like this. It's almost too bad that the next stage will end you for good."

"Wh...what?" Uni gasped out in pain.

K-Sha smirked at her. "You'll find out soon enough... When a beam of pure Fearicite energy is blasted from the C.I.D. onto you. I wonder what kind of Void you'll become."

Uni's eyes widened as she arched her back in pain while trying to do anything to get the collar off of her neck.

Above her the C.I.D. pointed a glowing red satellite at Uni.

"Goodbye, Uni." K-Sha smirked and turned to walk away. "When you come to, you'll no longer be yourself." She chuckled as the C.I.D. fired the energy beam towards the spasming and twitching Uni.

To be continued...

* * *

Well, crap! This isn't good! HELP!

Also, I got the idea of Affimojas being a power armor from SacredGearsy44.


	52. Drowning

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

I want to say this to all of you: Thank you all so, so much. Because of you guys Echoes of the Dark has become the most reviewed Neptunia fanfic on this website. I am *SO* grateful to all of you.

* * *

Chapter 45

Letting out a yell, Affimojas, known as Azna=Leb and Enzo, swung out with his sword, only to find it blocked by Steamax's ninja star. "You are indeed worthy. If you were to join me, we could..." He grabbed his cape and pulled it in front of him to block Steamax's throwing knives.

"As if I would join a traitor!" Steamax protested as he rushed Affimojas and pulled out a short sword to parry Affimojas's large sword. "If you would betray Lady Noire, you would gladly throw me to the side!"

Affimojas chuckled as his sword lit up with flames and he swung at Steamax rapidly, who, just as rapidly, parried and blocked the attacks. "And what makes you think that your Lady Noire," he spat Noire's name out with so much contempt that it was palatable, "won't just use you and throw you away when you've stopped being useful to her?"

"If you knew Lady Noire like I do, you would know that she doesn't throw people who are loyal to her away." Steamax countered as he rolled under a swipe from Affimojas and kicked upwards into the jaw of his opponent, sending him up into the air. "But you're short-sighted, shallow, and worst of all, untrustworthy."

Steamax watched and was rather impressed that the power suit his opponent was using was equipped with some anti-gravity measures to slow his descent.

"And what makes you think that you're right?" Affimojas asked him. "Black Void cares for only Order and Power. She refuses to show even her own sister any sort of affection or kindness. It would do us all some good if she were removed from the picture."

Steamax narrowed his eyes as he crouched down low. "If she openly showed that she cared for Lady Uni, I have no doubt that you and your cabal would use it against her." He launched himself at Affimojas, who held his cape in front of him to block the diving attack. The large man grunted as he was blasted away, even if the damage he took was minimal. "Did any of you stop to think that your actions are the reason that Lady Noire acts the way she does?!"

"Pathetic." Affimojas muttered as he landed on the rooftop and slid away. "She's nothing more than a child, crying about how the world is unfair and that no one gives her special treatment."

"Lady Noire knows better than anyone that life is unfair!" Steamax yelled as his large ninja star detached from his side and he threw it with all his might at Affimojas, who attempted to block it, but was surprised when it seemingly split into pieces and got behind him before shredding his armor from behind and forcing him to his knees.

"NNNGH!" Affimojas grunted and pushed himself up. Even with his cape destroyed, he still cut an imposing figure as he stood tall while Steamax grabbed his split throwing star and recombined it before reattaching it to his arm. "Interesting, I'm rather impressed." He lunged at Steamax, who blocked his attack with his combined ninja star. "It's too bad that a robot like you is a waste of programming."

"You're wrong about one thing, traitor." Steamax told Affimojas. "I'm not loyal to Lady Noire or Lady Uni because of my programming. I am programmed to protect Lady Uni. However," his eyes seemed to gleam as he pushed Affimojas up and away from him, "my loyalty to them is all on me! I do not need programming to be loyal to those who deserve it!"

"That loyalty will get you nothing but an early grave!" Affimojas proclaimed.

"If I die because I am loyal, then at least I will not die with regrets, unlike you." Steamax intoned. "However, I will not die today against you." He took a stance as he looked at Affimojas. "And when we are done, you will die a death fitting a traitorous mutt such as yourself."

(-)

Meanwhile...

Black Void parried another strike by Purple Heart. "Get away from me!" She yelled and drove her foot into Purple Heart's stomach, sending her flying away. She fired another blast at Purple Heart, who countered with an energy blade.

Hovering some distance away, Purple Heart resisted the urge to rub her stomach. 'I hate to admit it, but she's better than either of the Noires I know.' Her Noire had never been able to keep up with her for this long and the one from Plutia's world, while strong, lacked the experience to fight her like this.

Purple Heart wasn't sure if it was because Black Void was able to focus more on the fight or if the other Noires took it easy on her, but she knew one thing...

It was rather exhilarating to fight like this.

Black Void just glared at Purple Heart. 'So this is what a fully realized CPU is like, huh?' She hated to admit it, but she knew that if the fight continued on that she would lose. Already her body was starting to wear out and no matter what she did it didn't seem to be enough to beat this weird CPU.

When the sky turned red, both CPUs stopped to look at the C.I.D. as one of the satellites pointed down while glowing.

"That's..." Purple Heart's pupils shrank as she could feel the utter cold and wrongness that was Fearicite energy coming from the satellite. "Fearicite?" She asked as the beam narrowed for a brief moment.

"That doesn't make sense, there's so..." Black Void's eyes widened and she spun to look down. "UNI!" She screamed and launched herself down towards her sister.

Purple Heart turned and saw Uni thrashing and crackling with energy around her. "Oh no!" Purple Heart gasped and launched herself down towards Uni. She didn't know what was going on, but she knew one thing...

She wouldn't fail like she did in Eden.

As they raced towards Uni, Purple Heart and Black Void both glanced at each other. Black Void's look of distrust, hate and anger slowly melted away as Purple Heart smiled at her. "What are you doing?!" Black Void yelled at her. "You won't stop me from saving her!"

"Who says I'd stop you?" Purple Heart asked as she fired several swords off, slamming them into progbots on the way down. "I am CPU Purple Heart, the Guardian Goddess of Planeptune." She smirked at Black Void's look of shock. "Even if this isn't my world, nor my nation, it's still my job to protect the people!"

"Even if they don't deserve it?" Black Void asked as the two rushed down at Uni.

Purple Heart gave her a stern look. "Even if they're criminals, scum or worse, it's my job, my duty to protect them if I can."

Black Void gave Purple Heart a calculating look before turning back to look at Uni. "...You're a good person, Purple Heart."

Purple Heart smiled at hearing that. "There's still..." Whatever she was about to say was cut off as a loud crackling sound was heard and the satellite fired a large red beam towards Uni. Even with their speed and head start on the attack, it was quickly out speeding them and didn't take long to pass them.

"Dammit!" Black Void screamed, "I won't..." She cried out, tears escaping her eyes as she pushed herself as fast as she could go, "I won't make it!"

Purple Heart pursed her lips as she raced towards Uni. 'Even with a boost sigil, I can't either.' There was a way to do it, but it was risky and she might end up accidentally killing herself in the process. 'I hope I don't end up breaking something like I did when Marvy taught this to me.' She thought to herself as she focused on the technique to massively increase her speed, if even for a moment.

"What the hell?" Black Void stared as Purple Heart got ahead of the beam in an instant. "Is that some sort of Flash Step move?"

Appearing right above Uni, Purple Heart lashed out with a punch to knock Uni away just as the blast hit and engulfed Purple Heart with raw Fearicite energy.

Purple Heart screamed as it felt like her very being was being torn apart. "NO! AAAAAAAH!" She fell to the ground and struggled to stay on her knees. "This is... AAAAAAH!" She cried out as horrible, foreign energy flooded her body. "I can't..." Her eyes widened as she lifted her left arm and her processor on that arm started to tear itself apart. "NO! I won't... I WON'T SUBMIT TO YOU!" She screamed as she crawled forward, through the red energy. "STAY OUT OF MY HEAD!" She could feel negative thoughts, horrible thoughts, flooding her mind at that moment.

Even as she crawled, Purple Heart could feel her body changing. "I won't..." She began, her eyes glowing black while she crawled forward before collapsing to the ground.

Meanwhile, Black Void landed on the ground and grabbed her twitching sister, who was crying out in pain. "Uni!"

"N...Noire!" Uni gasped out. "It... It hurts, it..." She gasped as Black Void suddenly grabbed her neck and tore the collar off of her, causing the pain to stop. Uni gasped as she took in deep breaths while Black Void set her down gently.

"Just relax," Black Void told her while looking at the collar. "This feels like..."

"Aww!" K-Sha suddenly cried out while pointing a gun at Black Void. "I was hoping that she would turn into a Void. Oh well, I guess I can just kill you."

Black Void stood up and turned around to walk towards the red beam.

"Hey! What are you doing!?" K-Sha called out. "If you're worried about that other CPU, she's probably a Void by now. All dead inside except for hatred."

Black Void stopped and turned to look at K-Sha. "...Yeah, she probably is."

The next thing any of them knew, a beam was launched from Black Void's hip blasters right through where K-Sha's head was, bisecting the cyborg and causing her to fall to the ground in a headless heap.

Uni looked at K-Sha and sneered. "Good riddance."

Black Void turned back to the beam and narrowed her eyes before rushing to it and reaching into the beam. Grimacing at the raw amount of Fearicite flooding her body, she grabbed onto Purple Heart and pulled her out of the beam before tossing her like a rag doll to land by Uni.

Purple Heart landed on her back and let out shallow gasps like she was out of shape and had just run a marathon as her body was crackling with black, red and white energies. "NNNNGH!" Her shallow gasps made it sound like she was drowning in water even as her eyes were wide and unseeing while she jerked and twitched on the ground.

"BIG SIS!" Rom yelled as she saw the state Purple Heart was in. "YOU!" She glared at Black Void. "YOU MONSTER! WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!"

"HEY!" Uni yelled at Rom as she got to her feet. "Don't yell at Noire like that! She saved your sister!" Rom looked at her in confusion and back at Black Void as the CPU walked over to Purple Heart, idly blasting any cyborgs or progbots that got in front of her before kneeling down in front of Purple Heart.

"In so many ways I should enjoy seeing you suffer like this." Black Void said softly. "You came to my nation, caused chaos, broke the law and fought against me." She looked at Uni for several moments while her younger sister had a confused, uncertain look on her face before turning back to Purple Heart. "You saved my sister from becoming a Void though. For that, I'll end your suffering."

She raised her hand up and thrust it straight into Purple Heart's chest, just above her breasts.

To be continued...

* * *

Purple Heart... NOOO!

Man, what a place to end it for the week, huh? XD


	53. Black Nightmare

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

I wrote the majority of this chapter while listening to "Holding Out For a Hero". If you want to know when to play it, wait until Noire makes her declaration.

* * *

Chapter 46

Rom's eyes widened and her pupils shrank as she saw what Black Void was doing to Purple Heart. "NO! YOU MONSTER!" Rom ran forward, lightning crackling around her hands as tears burst from her eyes. "HOW DARE YOU!?"

"Oh shut up!" Black Void snapped at her as she pulled her arm back slowly. "Take a close look, you brat." She looked back at Purple Heart, who was jerking and gasping, but calming down while the red and black energy that was surrounding her body was dissipating and traveling to Black Void. When the energy cleared up, Purple Heart lay there, with no damage to her body and stared at Black Void in shock as the other CPU stood up and stepped away from her. "You saved my sister, I saved you. I think that makes us even."

"N...Noire?" Purple Heart couldn't believe what she was seeing. "You... You took that energy into yourself?" She asked as she looked at Black Void's right hand, which was crackling with Fearicite energy.

"If you want it back, I'd be happy to oblige." Black Void gave Purple Heart a smirk. She watched as Purple Heart let out a groaning sigh and transformed back to normal. "That took a lot out of you, huh?"

Neptune nodded as she sat on the ground. "Y...Yeah..." She trembled. Being bombarded with that energy, it felt like she had sank into an ocean of pure despair, darkness and hatred with no way to reach the surface. "I... Thank you." It felt weird to thank a Void, but Noire didn't seem as bad as the others had been.

Neptune shuddered as she still felt cold to her core. 'It... It got stronger, didn't it?' The Fearicite that was infecting her, even without the active energy flooding her body, it was still there.

Screwing her eyes shut, Neptune tried not to vomit. She knew that if she were to transform again that she might transform into a Void. 'No! I don't want to!' Images of Nepgear, Histoire, Plutia, B-Sha, Uzume, her bigger self, Peashy, both versions of IF, Compa, Noire, Blanc, and Vert flashed through her mind as she doubled over and shuddered. 'No! I won't hurt them! I won't hurt those I love!'

The images shifted to all of her friends and family were laying on the ground in pools of their own blood while she saw her hands covered in blood and shaking. But instead of a horrified cry, she heard, in her mind, the sickening laughter of someone who was insane. "No! Stop!"

Black Void frowned at Neptune and sighed. "Just try to recover."

Neptune nodded while panting heavily. "I can... Do that."

Black Void nodded and a screen appeared in front of her. She frowned as it was covered in static. "So whomever's in charge of the C.I.D. doesn't want me to see, huh? Too bad. Override! Code Seventh Heaven Fantasy." The static instantly cleared up and Black Void narrowed her eyes as she saw Singe in the captain's chair. "Well, this is interesting. To think that you were this brazen with your manipulation and betrayal."

Singe stared at Black Void, before chuckling. "Yes, that's right, we've been using you for years to deal with problems that threaten our hold over Lastation. It was so easy to do it too. We had a few modified people, which was never in short supply thanks to your policies that left so many destitute and in the slums, we were able to antagonize those that would be a threat to our power and use you to destroy them."

"I see..." Black Void narrowed her eyes and looked up at the C.I.D., "I think I'll come visit and thank you personally." She turned back to the screen as Singe laughed at her. "What?"

"You think that you can come visit me?" A savage grin came across his face as he laughed. "The C.I.D. was designed knowing how strong you are." Black Void's expression didn't change even as Singe continued to laugh. "I know that you never obtained your Nightmare form, Black Void."

"Nep-whaaaa?!" Neptune gawked at Black Void, who stood there silently. "The Nightmare form isn't natural to Voids?"

"It is natural." Black Void countered and looked at Neptune, "however, much like our Void state, we have to unlock it." She looked back at Singe and narrowed her eyes, "yes, it's true. I never unlocked my Nightmare form. My sister, Sapphire Void told me that I was unlikely to ever unlock it when she was dying. Because I could never feel the emotions needed to tap into the full power of the Fearicite. I stopped caring after I became a Void because nothing but power mattered in life. I sought to impose order on a chaotic world so that no more Voids would need to be born into this world."

"And yet you shut down the cybernetics enhancement program that we had going with Gernia G.," Singe countered, "you could have easily gotten the order if the people were stripped of their free will."

"And what would be the point of that?" Black Void countered and narrowed her eyes at Singe. "Easily controlled masses who are pre-programmed to do what you want aren't the type of people that this world needs." She scoffed before looking back at Neptune, who was being helped up by Rom, and then at Uni.

"Sis?" Uni asked, confusion on her face as Noire smiled at her softly.

"I never wanted you to become a Void, Uni." Black Void told her, "our lives are ones of suffering." She looked at Neptune again, "you, Neptune..." Black Void gave the purple-haired girl a stern look, "look after Uni for me while I deal with this. When this is over, help me make sure that she becomes a proper CPU, a Guardian Goddess."

"And what are you going to do?" Singe asked her. "In case you forgot, that other CPU is your enemy."

Black Void turned back to him and narrowed her eyes in anger. "My enemies are those that seek to cause disorder and chaos in my nation. And guess who's causing the most disorder and chaos right now?"

Singe's eyes widened. "But... Even so... You can't get up here! I'm safe from your..." He trailed off as Black Void held up her right arm, which was still crackling with Fearicite energy. "Wait... That..."

"My name is CPU Black Void..." Black Void began as she held up her arm while the power started to arc over her body. "The Black Calamity which seeks control over all else!" Her body was engulfed in a red light even as her eyes glowed. "And now, I am the nightmare that will eliminate the rot of Lastation."

"Noire?" Both Neptune and Uni gasped as the red light with black numbers engulfed and covered Black Void.

When the light ended, Black Void was standing there, but her form was different. Her legs from her feet to her knees were covered in white and black metal guards, her toes were covered in sharp points, her thighs were left exposed while her hips were covered in a tiny bikini bottom that was black that barely covered her crotch.

Neptune blushed as she looked at Noire's fully exposed butt, though she thought she saw hints of a thong covering up her naughty bits and a tail that looked like a Fenrir's tail was sticking out from the base of her spine.

Black Void's midsection was exposed, but her ribs and breasts were covered in a black and silver corset that, ironically, covered more flesh than her original Void form did. Her arms were covered in black and white armor while her hands were covered in clawed gloves.

Uni watched as her sister turned to look at her and she could only stare at the changes from the front. The hole in Noire's chest was red and pulsating with power and her sister had shoulder guards with spikes on them and a bone mask over her face that reminded Uni of a large dog for some reason. 'Maybe it's the parts on the top of her head that look like ears?' Uni thought to herself. Her sister's hair was in a style that was a mix of her CPU and her human forms, with long flowing hair with twin pig-tails on each side of her head, framing it. "Noire?"

"Call me Black Nightmare like this." Her voice was deeper, but there was no trace of that typical arrogance that was part of Black Void's voice. "Uni, Neptune..." She gave them a small smile. "You're both good people." Her smile disappeared as she looked up at the sky. "But there are times that even a good CPU must act like a Void to reign her people in."

"...You're not wrong." Neptune commented as she remembered how she and Plutia had to enforce some strict rules to keep people from trying to do lewd things with Yellow Heart back in the Ultradimension and how they had to actually make more than a few visits to people to get them to stop trying to lewd the naïve CPU.

Black Void nodded and threw her head back and let out a howl that shook everyone down to their bones before disappearing a burst of speed.

"What the?" Uni, Neptune and Rom all asked at the same time before hearing a bunch of shattering and smashing progbots.

"Woah!" They all gasped in surprise.

(-)

Ram and Filyn stood, back-to-back, as they fought off the progbots and cyborgs that were coming in close to them. "I'm getting tired, Filyn." Ram whimpered.

"And I'm having a hard time seeing straight!" Filyn snapped back as she looked around at the monsters surrounding them. "Ram... Let's make our big sisters proud of us."

"Yeah." Ram smiled. She was still embarrassed about being in just her panties, but Chrome had been right, the only thing that mattered was surviving right now, she could get new clothes if she survived.

The next thing either of them knew there was a blur that spun around them before stopping, revealing Black Nightmare as the progbots and cyborgs fell to the ground in pieces. Both of them stared at her in shock. "Get to Neptune, she needs to be protected from enemies."

Both of them nodded as Black Nightmare looked up and launched herself upwards at the C.I.D., tearing through flying progbots and security drones along the way.

"Come on!" Filyn grabbed Ram and the two ran towards Neptune, which was easy as there wasn't much of anything left on the ground to challenge them.

(-)

In the cockpit of the C.I.D., Singe shuddered. "Dammit! How could this..." He looked to the side and saw a glowing button. He pushed the button above it. "Please tell me that project BTH is ready to go." He said as the screen showed some technicians in the C.I.D..

One of the technicians nodded.

"Then..." Singe chuckled. "Allow my masterpiece," he looked at the oncoming Black Nightmare, "to show us the end of this Nightmare." He pushed the glowing red button as doors to the C.I.D. started to open up and a large body that was in the hangar suddenly jerked and its eyes glowed as it fell out the open doors and down to the city below.

(-)

Black Nightmare's eyes widened as a large object came out of the C.I.D. and came diving at her. "What's thack!" She cried out as the object turned out to be a large humanoid body that punched her with its left hand and grabbed her with its right hand as it zipped to the ground below, crashing with enough force that all loose objects, such as window glass, trash, people and even the sidewalks were blasted off the ground and away from the impact site.

Black Nightmare grimaced in pain as the humanoid being pushed down on her body while standing up fully.

"It..." Neptune's eyes widened as she saw who was there. "It can't be..." Images of that enemy flashed through her head. "...C...F...W... Brave?"

The large humanoid robot stood above Black Nightmare and reached over its shoulder to pull out a large sword and raised it up to strike at Black Nightmare.

"NO!" Uni and Neptune yelled as Brave swung his sword down at Black Nightmare's prone body. They could only watch in horror as his sword slammed into where Black Nightmare was, kicking up dust and dirt and obscuring what they could see.

Suddenly Brave raised his head up. "I must say," he began, "I am impressed at such speed."

"What?" Uni gasped, her eyes widening and watering up as she saw her sister, still alive and okay and being held in a bridal carry by Steamax.

"You are safe, Lady Noire." Steamax said to her as he put her down. "...Is something wrong?" He asked as he saw Black Nightmare's slightly flustered look.

"...You grabbed my boob and my butt when you rescued me." Black Nightmare muttered, causing Steamax to jerk in surprise. "I'm not upset about that, just pointing it out. Next time you need to rescue a girl, be careful where you grab is all."

"Yes!" Steamax nodded and both of them looked at Brave. "Lady Noire, allow me to help you with this foe."

Black Nightmare was silent for a moment before looking at Steamax. "Your priority is to protect Uni. For all I care, you could leave me to die at any time, so why did you help me?"

"I do not need programming to tell me to protect those I care about." Steamax told her, causing Black Nightmare's eyes to widen. "You created me, if I can make your life just a little easier, then I shall do what I can to help in that regard."

"...Idiot." Black Nightmare turned back to Brave, her face slightly red under her mask. "If that's the case, what took you so long to get out here?"

"My apologies," Steamax said, "I was busy dealing with the ringleader of the cyborgs, Azna=Leb."

Black Nightmare nodded, glad to have someone like Steamax on her side.

(-)

At the Basilicom, Kei was watching the events unfold on various screens with a frown on her face. "...Azna=Leb?" She whispered softly and opened a communication channel to him. When the screen showed his broken, bleeding and dead body with his Affimojas power armor laying around him in pieces, she felt herself trembling in pure rage. "That..." She snarled as she gripped her chair. "Okay, fine bitch, you want to play this way? I'll show you that two can play this game." She flipped open her phone and pressed a button on it to call someone. "Gernia G.? Did you put those neural over-rides in all the cyborgs? You did? Good. As soon as I give the signal, activate them. We're going to capture that bitch and all those others down there and I'll figure out how to deal with them. Do you understand! Any of them die and I'll feed you to sharks with lasers on their foreheads!"

Snapping her phone shut, Kei reached into her desk and pulled out a handgun before getting up from the desk and walking to the elevator. "I'll take care of that bitch on my own."

(-)

"Do you two think you will be enough to take me on?" Brave asked as two cannons formed on his shoulders and he fired at them. Both Black Nightmare and Steamax quickly dodged and rushed in. "Fools!" Swinging his sword out in a wide arc, he forced them to dodge again. His shoulder cannon fired at Black Nightmare, who jumped to the side as Steamax rushed in and did a diving kick at Brave's head, causing the large robot to slide backwards and Brave swung his sword up at Steamax, who twisted in mid-air while Black Nightmare came rushing in and slammed into Brave hard and sending him crashing onto the ground hard.

Not far away, Uni, Neptune and Rom, who were joined by Filyn and Ram, watched in slight awe as Black Nightmare and Steamax fought the lion-crested robot. "They did it!" Uni smiled happily. "I knew that big sis could do it."

Neptune shook her head. "No... He's one of the four... WATCH OUT!" She screamed as two energy blasts ripped through where Black Void and Steamax had been just a moment ago. "He's one of the Four Felons in my world. Because of his leader, I was captured for three years." Being slowly drained to death while the world was on the verge of destruction and being unable to do anything about it really did suck.

"Wait, your world?" Uni asked, confusion on her face. "What do you mean by your world?"

Before Neptune could answer, they heard Black Nightmare suddenly scream in pain, as if her entire being was being assaulted at once. "What?!" They both stared and gasped as they saw, not Black Nightmare, but Noire on her knees panting and gasping.

"Noire!" Uni ran to her sister, or tried to as she was grabbed from behind. Turning, she glared at the person who grabbed her before staring in horror as she saw K-Sha's headless body grabbing her. "No! Let me..." She jerked as another body, this one mostly destroyed, grabbed her by her legs.

Neptune, Rom, Ram and Filyn were all quickly grabbed by dead cyborg people and pinned down to the ground.

"So sorry!" A screen with Gernia G.'s face appeared on it while she smiled at Uni and the others. "Can't have you do anything to stop us. Anyway, night night."

Before Uni could ask what she meant, she felt sharp pin-pricks hit her in the back of the neck, her breasts and her butt before she fell to the ground, unconscious.

(-)

Not far away from them, Noire was on her knees and panting. "What the hell?" A screen appeared in front of her and she looked up to see Kei grinning at her. Noire's eyes widened in shock as she saw the room Kei was in. "The Fearicite Chamber?!"

"Well, I guess you can call it that." Kei chuckled at her. "It was easy to get past your security, Noire. But I don't know if I'd call it the Fearicite Chamber anymore... I kind of destroyed the Fearicite in here."

"Lady Noire, look out!" Steamax yelled and rushed in, pushing the redhead out of the way before a blast from Brave slammed into him, destroying most of his body, save for his left arm, chest and head.

"STEAMAX!" Noire quickly crawled to him. "You stupid idiot!" She yelled at the robot. "If you die, then who will take care of Uni?!"

"My... Apologies... Lady... Noire..." Steamax's eyes dimmed before going dark.

"Steamax... Steamax?!" Noire yelled, tears falling out of her eyes. "YOU IDIOT!" Before she could continue to cry, she was wrapped up in a cable and a surge of electricity went through her body, causing her to scream as her essence became nothing but pain.

Brave said nothing as he waited for her to pass out from the pain. When she finally stopped screaming and went limp, he cut the power and lifted her up.

"Brave, bring that dead robot with you as well." Kei told him. "And bring Uni and those others with her with you as well."

A loud crash caught Kei's attention as she saw Chrome smashing her way through Progbots and cyborgs. "Leave them alone or I'll..." Chrome stopped as she saw that Neptune, Filyn, Rom, Ram and Peashy all had cyborg hands around their necks.

"Come along quietly, won't you." Kei replied to her calmly while smiling tightly. "If you don't comply, well... I can't guarantee that they won't be killed."

"...Dammit." Chrome muttered and dropped her weapon to the ground while letting her razor wires dissipate.

"Good girl." Kei chuckled softly and snapped her fingers as cables wrapped around Chrome's body and lifted her up. "Brave, bring all of them to the Basilicom, we have... Much to do with them."

"Yes, mistress Kei." Brave said while sending out cable cords to wrap up Neptune, Uni, Rom, Ram, Filyn, and Peashy and pulled them and Chrome all close to his body while putting his sword away and walking over to the remains of Steamax and picking him up before turning and flying to the Basilicom.

To be continued...

* * *

...The bad guys won? Well, fuck!

Project BTH is Project "Brave the Hard" (as CFW Brave's name in Japan is known as that).

In case you forgot, or don't know how Noire knows Neptune's name, Kei told her when she gave Noire the information. If I didn't have it shown, just assume it happened off-screen.


	54. Experiment

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 47

Walking through the hospital while she visited some sick friends, Chian thought back to the weird little CPU that she and her husband had met. 'I wonder what nation she was from.' She never did get that information out of Neptune.

_"I would do it anyway. Even if I wasn't a CPU, I'd still want to help the people who need it. Because it's the right thing to do."_

The look of... Utter conviction in her eyes and voice convinced Chian that Neptune really believed what she said. "But is it right?" She asked herself. "Is it right that we force CPUs to fight for us like this?" She asked herself before shaking her head as her phone vibrated. "What now?" Pulling out her phone, she tapped the screen and blinked at the news update. "What's this?" She asked as she hit play.

"This is Abnes with a breaking news story. CPU Black Void has gone rogue and joined forces with invading CPUs to destroy and damage as much of Lastation as possible. Thankfully the brave men and women who protect the government were able to stop Black Void and her cohorts, but not before substantial loss of life and destruction of property. Including Lastation's Chief Medical Officer and Security Enforcer, Azna=Leb. He fell in battle to CPU Black Void's personal robot assassin."

Chian frowned upon hearing that. "That doesn't sound right. Why would Black Void do something like that? And invading CPUs? Does she mean Neptune?"

"We now go to the intern leader of Lastation, Kei Jinguji for comment."

The scene changed and there was a short... Person, Chian couldn't tell if Kei was a boy or a girl from the video, in a black suit who had short, silver hair and cobalt blue eyes standing at a podium.

"Thank you for your time." Kei began. "Sadly, as of yesterday, CPU Black Void decided to go rogue. As someone she took in and raised to help run Lastation, it saddens me to see that she would take this path, especially when she preached to me, constantly, about how order was needed in life. During the battle yesterday, we lost many people, including a great man in Azna=Leb." Tears came to Kei's eyes and were wiped away. "My apologies. He and I were close."

A reporter quickly raised her hand and Kei nodded to her. "Close professionally or personally?"

"I would rather not answer that, but regardless of how close we were to each other, it did not affect our ability to do work to improve the lives of everyone in Lastation."

"What will happen to Black Void? And what will happen to Lastation?"

"We will see why Black Void went rogue before any decisions will be made about her. As for Lastation, you need not worry. We will be protected and safe." Kei sighed softly. "I apologize, but I wish to take some time to myself."

Turning off her news feed, Chian quickly pulled up her social media groups that followed the news and ran through her feed. Despite how the general populace felt about Black Void and the need to fear her, the people of her groups, and there were thousands of them, supported Black Void for her work in making Lastation a safer place.

There seemed to be a general consensus among the people that Black Void had to have a good reason. One person even claimed that the reason Black Void went rogue had to be related to her younger sister. No one believed that person until they posted a video.

Chian's eyes went wide as she saw Uni laying on the ground and a red energy blast descend from the sky. The video didn't show the beam hitting Uni, but it was pretty clear as to what happened. 'This is...' She didn't know if Black Void cared about her sister or not, but if she did, something like this would be enough to cause her to go rogue.

Putting her phone away, she turned the corner and saw several security officers surrounding a door to a room, all of them fully armed and looking like they were going to kill someone. "Now what?" She asked herself and walked towards them. Hopefully they would let her go without hassling her too much.

Thankfully none of them said anything to her as she walked by and Chian sighed softly, glad she didn't need to get involved with...

"Compa! Calm down, Chu..." A mousy voice was heard from inside.

"But, Warechu! You heard them! They arrested Nep Nep and Peashy and Rom and Ram and now we're all..."

"Dammit..." Chian cursed softly and looked inside as she saw a bunch of security guards inside looking at them and a girl on the bed with their guns lightly trained on them. Chian bit her lip and turned to go in, though she was stopped. "Yes?"

"We can't let you go in, these are suspected accomplices of the criminal CPUs and..."

"Huh?" Chian gave the security guard. "They aren't criminals. In fact..." She looked in and waved. "Hey! Compa!"

"Huh?" Compa turned her head to look at Chian. "I'm sorry, who..?"

"It's me! Chian!" She smiled and waved more. "Wow! You are looking GOOD girl! I haven't seen you since... Wow!" Her eyes widened as she looked Compa up and down. "Please? Can I go see my friend?"

The security officers looked at each other before stepping aside and allowing Chian into the room.

"Thanks." Chian smiled and ran up to Compa and gave her a big hug. "My goodness!" Chian pulled Compa back to arm's length away from her. "You've gotten so big! The last time I saw you, you didn't have these big... Eyes on your face." She said while looking Compa up and down and focusing on the girl's chest.

Compa blinked in confusion. "Um, Miss... Chian, I don't..."

"Oh look at me talk like this, we need to catch up on all the good times." Chian smiled at her before turning to the rest of the group. "Warechu?" When the mouse, who was blushing, perked up, she smiled at him. "How are you, buddy? Still taking care of Compa, I see?" Without giving him time to answer, she turned to the security guards. "Can you give us all some alone time, please?" She sighed when they shook their heads. "Look, we're several stories up, none of us are going to be blasting through the wall and fly away and there's a badly burned person in the room." When they still didn't move, Chian frowned at them. "You know, my husband works for the Lastation Central Bank," she mentally smirked as the security people started to look nervous, "now what would happen if he decided to delay cashing your paychecks for a few days?"

"We'll be outside the room." One of the security officers said as they cleared out and closed the door behind them.

"Phew, finally!" Chian sighed and looked at the others. "Sorry about that, I had to lie my ass off there."

"Oh! Phew!" Compa let out a sigh of relief. "I was worried that I forgot someone that I never met before."

Linda, who was sitting next to IF and gently giving the burned girl's hand a squeeze, looked at Chian. "So why are you here anyway?"

Chian gave her a serious look and sighed softly. "What do you know about what's going on?"

"Nep Nep's a criminal and we're all in trouble because we know her." Compa said, her eyes white and blank.

Chian nodded at that. "Yeah. Listen, I don't think the media's telling you everything."

"B-b-b-b-b-but..." Compa stuttered at that. "That would be wrong! People need to rely on the media for information!"

"Gust thinks that maybe the media is lying to people because the media is controlled by someone." The short bunny girl muttered from her spot next to the window.

"Sadly, that's true." Chian sighed softly. "The truth is, I don't know what's going on fully either, but I'm pretty sure that something bad is happening. Lady Black Void wouldn't just randomly go and do what she did."

"She's a Void." Linda grumbled while looking at IF, who was sleeping with a mask on her face. "See IF here? The burns on her body were because of a Void. Compa lost her arms because of a Void. We saw an entire country disappear because of another Void. So don't try to defend her around us."

Chian shook her head. "I'm sorry for all the problems you've faced, but I don't care if you hate Voids. Lady Black Void isn't a bad person." She lowered her voice as IF groaned and shifted slightly. "Sorry, anyway, your friends are likely being held up at the Basilicom."

"Really?" Linda asked and got a nod from Chian. "...Rat, bunny... Let's go turn ourselves in." Everyone looked at her. "If they're wanted criminals and we're their associates, don't you think we'd be taken to the same place?"

"Yes, but..." Compa began but stopped at Linda's smirk.

"Just leave it to me." Linda said as she got up and went to the door and opened it up. "Hey, faceless, nameless armed guard, could you come in here?"

"I have a name you know, and my face is here." The guard muttered and entered the room. "What do you want?" The guard asked.

"Well..." Linda began as the door closed behind the guard.

(-)

Outside of the hospital room...

"It's been two minutes." One of the security guards said.

"We should..." The doors opened up and the security guard that went in came out with a rat and a bunny girl being led in front of the guard's gun. "What's going on?" The security guard noticed that only the bunny girl was in handcuffs, but when he saw that the rat's arms were too small to cuff, he said nothing.

"These two confessed to being enemies of Lastation and aiding the CPUs that led the assault yesterday." The guard replied to them while jamming the back of Gust's head with the gun barrel. "The injured girl and the one with fake arms were simply traveling with and did nothing to aid them."

"What about the girl with green hair?"

"She knows nothing as well."

"It's true, Gust swears." The blue-haired girl said while rubbing the back of her head. "Leave Compa, IF and Linda alone and Gust will tell you everything that you want to know."

"Very well," the first guard nodded. "Follow me. Good job, Jerbins." The first guard looked at the others. "Make sure that no one else leaves that room, understand." They nodded and stood at attention.

Jerbins nodded and followed after the first security officer with Gust and Warechu following, Gust's hands in handcuffs and Warechu's hands on his head.

After they were gone, one of the remaining security officers looked at the others. "Is it just me, or did Jerbins look like he was thirty kilos lighter?"

"Just you." Was the response.

(-)

In the hospital room, Chian giggled and looked under the bed to see the security officer in just his underwear and tied to the bottom of IF's bed and off the floor while his mouth was gagged. "Who knew that Linda was so good at imitating other people?"

The guard said nothing. Being unconscious due to a pipe to the back of the head would do that to a person after all.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Groaning as she woke up, Noire groggily blinked her eyes as she took stock of where she was.

The first thing she noticed was that her arms and legs were being pinned against something, as was her body. It didn't take her long to realize that she was on a large metal X and her arms and legs were shackled to the object. The second thing she noticed was that she was in a cell of some type. 'Figures that little...' When a breeze went across her body and she shivered, she looked down and realized that while she had been unconscious she had been stripped down to her underwear. "How nice of them to leave me my bra and panties on." She muttered dryly.

"Would you rather I have you hanging there naked?" Noire looked up and saw Kei standing on the other side of the bars, glaring at her. The silver-haired woman opened the doors and walked into the cell. "You're such an idiot." Kei said softly.

"I figured you'd betray me at some point." Noire told her. "You humans always do."

Kei snarled at Noire and threw her right hand back and slapped Noire's breasts hard, causing the CPU to wince. "Shut up!" She slapped Noire's breasts again, this time with her left hand, causing them to jerk to the side. "Shut up!" Another slap. "Shut up!" Another slap. "You stole him from me!" Another slap followed that one, as did several more as Noire's breasts swayed side to side from the slapping.

Wincing with each slap, Noire looked at Kei with one eye open. "While this hurts, quite a bit, I admit, are you done yet? You're not doing any real damagAAAAAH!" She let out a cry as Kei grabbed her breasts, squeezed, pulled and twisted them. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"You stole Azna=Leb from me!" Kei snarled before letting go of Noire's breasts and taking a deep breath. "No, that's not why I'm here."

"You could have fooled me." Noire groaned. "Are you just doing that because you're jealous of the fact that you couldn't grow your own?"

"You know what?" Kei asked and turned to walk away. "I was going to make you an offer, but since you're like this, I think I'll let Gernia G. have her fun first." She stopped at the cell door and looked back at Noire. "And just so you know, Azna=Leb was quite the lover."

Noire scoffed at her. "I wouldn't know. I'd never trust anyone to get that intimate with me."

"Too bad," Kei smirked at her. "It's quite nice to be pushed down and bent over your desk while your partner pulls your panties down and dominates you with his big dick." She chuckled at Noire's dirty look. "I'll see you in a few days, Noire, former CPU of Lastation."

Noire glared at Kei as she walked off. "You bitch!" She yelled at Kei, who stopped and turned back to give Noire an infuriating grin.

"It takes a bitch to know a bitch, doesn't it? But don't worry about Uni. Gernia G. is taking good care of her as we speak." She laughed at the look of utter horror on Noire's face. "I knew you cared for her, if I could have proved it sooner I would have used her to control you."

Noire snarled as Kei left the room.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"Interesting..." A woman said while looking at Neptune, who was giving her a dirty look. "Quite an interesting one, aren't you?"

"Did you need to strip me down to my panties?" Neptune asked the woman, who was dressed up as a typical scientist but didn't have any really defining features. Heck, her hair was under some sort of plastic cap. "And why are my hands chained above my head and my feet strapped to the bed?" Her eyes widened and she blushed heavily. "I mean, if you wanted to lewd me, you could have asked, I'd feel less uncomfortable rather than being helpless like this."

The woman shook her head. "Sadly, I'm not interested in that. But since you mentioned it..." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a purple, glowing stick.

"Uh..." Neptune looked at that. "What's that?"

"A large gem that's pure, concentrated Fearicite energy." The woman said cheerfully as Neptune turned pale.

"Uh... I don't suppose you're going to just use that to scare me, are you?" Neptune asked, hoping that's what the plan was, when the woman shook her head, she gulped. "Fish sticks. So, um... What are you going to do with that?"

"I'm going to shove it into you!" She said cheerfully. "Let's see... I see basically three holes this can go into. Your mouth, your vagina or your anus."

"...Is there any other option? Like, um, NOT going into me?" The woman shook her head and Neptune whimpered softly. "If that goes into my throat, I'll probably choke to death if it goes down my throat and..." She blushed softly, "I'd rather not get that shoved in my vagina so..."

"Oh wow, I was messing with you." The woman said flatly and Neptune gave her a half-relieved, half-dirty look while she chuckled. "I wanted to see what your reaction would be, nothing more."

"And I was preparing my butt too." Neptune said in a faux disappointed tone of voice, though it was blatantly obvious that she was relieved that she wasn't going to have anything shoved up her posterior.

"I was lying when I said what this was." The woman smiled at her. "However, we did run scans on you while you were out and discovered that you're very similar to Black Void on a metaphysical sense." She chuckled at Neptune's confused look. "Don't worry, such a thing is hard to comprehend for most people." She held up the, what Neptune thought was now a glow stick, and put it over her panties before running it upwards, across her stomach, over her belly button, up to her ribs, up her bare chest and stopping right above her heart and Neptune watched in horror as her Share Crystal was pulled out of her body.

"Without this, you would probably die, wouldn't you?" The woman asked, though she tilted her head in confusion. "Hmm? What's with this gold?"

"Nothing." Neptune told her. "It's just how we CPU Hearts are."

The woman chuckled and reached into her pocket, pulling out a black crystal shard. The instant Neptune saw it, she went pale and her pupils shrank. "I see that you recognize a Fearicite shard. This is the largest chunk of Black Void's Fearicite Crystal." She held it up to Neptune's Share Crystal and watched as the black crystal was absorbed into Neptune's Share Crystal.

Suddenly the colors of the Share Crystal suddenly changed to a negative color scheme, turning white, blue and green before white and black lightning erupted from the crystal and engulfed Neptune, who let loose a soul-wrenching scream as her very essence was attacked from within.

"Interesting." The scientist said as she looked at the data that was being gathered. "Oh! This will help us so much with those CPU Candidates." She jumped up and down while clapping her hands together. "We'll have a bunch of Voids under our control in a few days, won't we?"

Neptune couldn't answer, she couldn't hear, she couldn't even see. All she knew was pain as it felt like she was being torn apart from the inside out.

Beyond the pain, it felt like she was sinking into a sea of pure darkness and agony and she could neither see the surface nor swim through it.

'Histy! Nepgear! Someone! Help me! SAVE ME! PLEASE!' Neptune screamed in her head as her body convulsed while being attacked from within.

The scientist just watched with glee as more and more data became available.

To be continued...

* * *

Excuse me, I'm going to be over here behind a protective barrier so that none of you can kill me.


	55. Torture

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 48

Rom glared at the scientists who had her suspended in mid air with her arms and legs in large shackles connected to a series of metal circles around her. "Let me go!"

"No." The lead scientist said to her without looking up from the datapad in his hands. "Interesting..."

"Can I at least have some clothes?!" Rom yelled as she thrashed. "I'm cold!"

The scientist looked up at Rom and sighed. "Now why would I do that? I get more accurate information when you're naked."

Rom blushed softly. "You just want to see my boobies!" She knew that she was big for her apparent age, but that didn't mean she wanted people to stare at her.

"I do admit, I'm rather impressed, you seem to be physically about twelve or thirteen, yet you have developed nicely in that regard." The scientist said and looked back at the datapad as the rings started to turn and spin, causing Rom to spin around in various circular motions.

It wasn't so bad, until it started to get faster and Rom couldn't tell up from down. "STOP THIS THING! AAAAAAH!"

"Interesting, so very interesting." The scientist ignored Rom's crying as she pushed a button and the rings all started to glow blue before a powerful surge of electrical energy coursed through them. The scientist ignored the howls and screams of pain coming from Rom as her body was flooded with raw electrical energy. "I see, most interesting!" The scientist tapped the data pad and the glow was turned off and the rings were slowed down before coming to a stop with Rom back in the same position as before, just panting and glaring at the scientist.

"That was mean!" Rom protested.

"All in the name of science, my dear. Nothing else matters to me." The scientist smiled at her. "By the way, I found something interesting out."

"...What?" Rom shivered at the look she was given from the scientist.

"You reached the threshold." The scientist sighed at Rom's confused look. "What I mean is, you reached a point of Fearicite saturation. You should have turned into a Void already, but for some reason you didn't."

Rom trembled while looking at the scientist. "S-s-s-s-s-so what?" She stuttered.

"I'm sure that Anonydeath will be able to do lots with that."

Rom watched in horror as several attendants wheeled in a tube that could fit a fully-grown person, much less a little girl like her. It was placed on the ground near her and the attendants unclasped her manacles from the rings as they silently moved her up and over the tube. "Let me go! Let me go! Stop this! Let me go!"

When they did so, Rom fell into the tube and a lid was placed over it before liquid started to fill the tube.

"Don't worry," the scientist said over a communication line. "You won't suffocate. It's just a liquid that will put you into stasis."

"I won't let you hold me anymore!" Rom gathered up her magic, now that she was free of her manacles and prepared to blast a hole out of the tube.

When she didn't even get a spark of magic, she stared at her hands in horror while the liquid quickly covered her hips.

"You're wearing a collar, as is all the CPUs and CPU Candidates that we captured." Rom looked at the group of scientists in horror as her chest was covered in the cool liquid. "You're unable to use any magic or any powers right now. Anyway, goodbye, little girl. The next time we meet, you'll likely be a Void."

"NOOOGULB!" Rom screamed out until the tube was filled with liquid. There was a flash of light and she stopped moving and struggling.

"She'll be fine, right?" One of the assistants asked and the scientist nodded at that.

"Yes. This is used by doctors when they come across people who are still alive but won't make it back to the hospital for surgery. The flash of light is just the body being put into something like a stasis lock. She could survive in that state for three years before complications would arise."

"Oh, okay."

(-)

In another room, Filyn was strapped to a table and, much like Rom, was stripped naked. Though in her case, even her eye-patch was removed, as was the protective covering that was used to keep junk and debris from getting into her head through the socket in her eye.

"My, my..." Anonydeath muttered and shook his head as he floated into the room. "Who did this to such a cute girl?"

"You can't be in, AAAAH!" The scientist that tried to stop Anonydeath found himself on the ground with a broken arm as Anonydeath grabbed the arm, twisted hard enough to break the bones under it and threw him to the ground.

"I can't be where now?" Anonydeath asked and floated over to Filyn. "Hmm, this is horrible." He pointed at an attendant. "You." The attendant pointed at herself and Anonydeath nodded. "Yes, you. I want you to get me the cybernetic eye transplant equipment."

"Uh..."

"Fifteenth floor, room five, back room, right shelf, third from the top." Anonydeath answered as he grabbed some scanning equipment and started running over Filyn's eye socket. "Hurry up or I'll release a bunch of embarrassing images of you and that radish to your colleagues."

The attendant was out of the room in three seconds flat.

"What are you doing?" One of the scientists protested. "We're supposed to scan her for CPU potential. If it's high enough, we're to send her to you for fixing before she's turned into a Void." The scientist went silent as Anonydeath looked at him.

"In case you forgot, I'm on equal footing with Kei, so if you want to live, I really suggest you keep quiet and let me do my thing."

"Where's Chromey?" Filyn asked and Anonydeath looked back at her. "Where's my big sister?"

"I don't know. I'm not in charge of everyone." Anonydeath said to her. "Anyway..." He leaned in to Filyn. "You should be thankful that I'm in charge of you. Noire's cute little sister gets Gernia G. and..." The pink power armor shivered. "I don't look forward to what she's going to do to that girl."

Filyn wondered what he meant by that.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Laying naked on an operating table with heavy straps holding her down, Uni thrashed and screamed as needles were inserted into various places on her body and she was injected with some sort liquid.

"I haven't even begun to cause you pain yet." Gernia G. stated as she grinned at Uni. "Now... Let's see... Oh, I know!"

"What are, nnngh!" Uni gasped out as the needles in her nipples were removed and were replaced by some sort of suction cups, which were similar in design to an EKG device, over the tops of her breasts while a similar object was placed on her lower abdomen. "What are you doing?!"

"Quiet, you." Gernia G. stated as she attached some sort of helmet to the top of her head with other spots that were similar to EKGs were stuck to her head in a circular pattern. "I'm going to enjoy this. You won't, but I will."

Uni's eyes widened before she screamed again while this time her brain was bombarded with information of various types of pain.

"See, it's a neural transmitter that's bypassing your body's normal defenses and sending all different types of pain straight to your head." Gernia G. smiled and patted Uni on the shoulder, though that made the girl scream even more and thrash. "Oh yes, it makes it so that everything feels like pain to you. Even the air should start being painful really soon to you." She chuckled as Uni's screaming increased to the point that her voice was cracking. "Such good screams," she sighed happily. "I'm so glad that I can get away with this." Giggling, Gernia G. looked over the data and smiled. "Don't worry, soon it'll feel even worse. Here, you can feel what labor pains are like."

She watched as Uni's back arched while the CPU Candidate twisted and jerked in sheer pain. "Oh, the fun I'll have. You know what the best part is?" Gernia G. grinned as she tapped her data pad. "I can turn off the pain and make you see what I want you to see."

Uni suddenly flopped down as the pain ended and started panting heavily. "That..."

"So pathetic." Uni's eyes widened and she turned to see Noire walking up to her with a look of disappointment on her face. "To think that you could EVER be considered to be my replacement." She scoffed and pulled out her sword. "Foolish little sister."

"NO!" Uni screamed before jerking in surprise and she looked down to see Noire's sword lodged deep into her gut.

"Just lay down and die." Noire snarled at her.

When Uni spasmed, Gernia G. grinned and tapped her datapad again. "Oh, the fun of dying over and over again, all the fun of dying horribly without the nasty loss of life."

The best part of all of this? She was able to see just how Uni was dying over and over again in her mind, thanks to the neural transmitter sending the images to the datapad.

"It's too bad the Fearicite is shattered, but I can still experiment on you all I want." Gernia G. giggled in glee while her grin got sadistic and disturbing. "Let's see... How about I make you feel like you're drowning, even though you're not?" Seeing Uni instantly stop thrashing and screaming and start gasping for air was so... Amusing to her.

"Fun fun for everyone." Gernia G. smiled as she continued her work.

(-)

In another room...

"LET PEA GO!" Peashy screamed as she pounded on the glass tube she was in.

"She was hard to deal with, wasn't she?" One of the scientists said as they watched Peashy get covered up by the stasis water before a flash of light happened and she was put into stasis sleep. "What's going to happen to her?"

"Apparently they want these CPU Candidates to be given to Anonydeath so their brains can be re-written or something." One of the aides said, shrugging as he looked at the naked blonde in the tube. "I don't know what they're planning and I don't care. I get paid the same regardless."

"True."

(-)

Elsewhere...

Ram whimpered as she hung naked from the ceiling, her arms above her head. "I'm scared..." She whimpered as she was dropped into a tube. She didn't even bother trying to fight to escape as the top was sealed and liquid was filling it up. 'Big sis, I'm sorry, I'm too scared.' She thought to herself as the liquid filled the tube and a flash froze her in a stasis state like Rom and Peashy had been.

(-)

In another part of Lastation...

Watching as they flew away from the Basilicom, Jerbins turned to look at the officer driving the vehicle. "Um, sir, shouldn't we go to the Basilicom? Obviously these are dangerous criminals."

"You know they need to get processed." The officer said in a long suffering tone of voice. "It should only take a few hours."

Jerbins nodded and looked at the Basilicom again. "I see. My apologies. I would think we'd want to hurry them to the Basilicom is all."

"You know how much of a stickler for protocol Lady Kei is." The officer said as they flew to the station.

"A few hours, huh?" Jerbins muttered and looked at the Basilicom again. 'Stay safe, Neptune, we'll be there soon.'

(-)

"What do you mean it can't be done?" Jerbins asked while pointing at Gust and Warechu, who were both in small animal cages. "They're very dangerous criminals."

"Sorry, Jerbins." The secretary shook her head. "You know that all government databases were going through mandatory upgrades over the past month. It's our turn. We can't process them for three days."

Jerbins twitched and nodded, letting out a sigh. "Very well."

"Anyway, there's a dolly..." The secretary pointed to the two-wheel cart that was used to lift heavy boxes by factory workers. "Just cart them to the cells and we'll deal with them for three days."

"Sure." Jerbins nodded and lifted the cages up and put them on the dolly before tilting it back and wheeling it off. As they got close to the cells, Jerbins whispered to Gust, who was on top of Warechu. "Sorry, I didn't think it would be like this."

"It's okay." Gust answered Jerbins. "Gust hopes they will be okay for three days."

"...You and me both." Jerbins answered. "You and me both."

For some reason, Gust, Warechu and Jerbins all had a bad feeling, as though they knew that Neptune and the others weren't okay.

To be continued...

* * *

Well, that was horrible.

Imma gunna go hide now.

Also, starting next week, I'm cutting the posting down a bit (otherwise I'll get caught up with what I'm writing). Work is hell on my ability to write.


	56. Sinking

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 49

"Well, well, well..." A familiar voice had Neptune opening her eyes as she saw Kurome standing in front of her. "We meet again, Nepsy." She had a pleasant smile on her face. "Though I wish it wasn't while you were surrounded by this black, murky field."

Neptune's eyes were barely open and she had a look of pure pain on her face. "What do you want?" She managed to croak out.

"Can't I just enjoy watching my junior?" Kurome asked while still smiling. "I mean, have you seen yourself? It's amazing to watch you scream in pain on the table. Here." She snapped her fingers and Neptune watched as a screen appeared next to Kurome and the blue-haired woman, phantom, Neptune wasn't sure, floated towards her. "Look, Nepsy, it's you."

On the screen, Neptune saw her body thrashing, twisting and jerking while screaming out in pain while black and white, though from what she could see the white was turning red in color, lightning crackled both around and into her body. "...I'm turning into a Void, aren't I?"

"Bingo!" Kurome smiled happily and grabbed Neptune's shoulders while turning her around to put her nose against Neptune's. "Aren't you excited, Nepsy? Now you'll be just like me."

"Like... You?" Neptune asked softly, her eyes dull and blank.

"That's right!" Kurome's eyes were full of glee and happiness. "You'll become a monster and destroy everything like I tried to have you do before."

"A... Monster?" Neptune asked softly, her eyes slowly closing. "That sounds... Not so... Bad..."

"Neptune!" Some voices that sounded distant to her caused Neptune to open her eyes.

"...Plutie? B-Sha?"

"Neppy..." Plutia had a sad look on her face. "You're not going to become a baaaaad CPU, are you?"

"I'm so tired, Plutie..." Neptune sighed softly. "I can't..."

"But Neppy..." Plutia smiled at her. "Didn't you help kill the me of here because I was a bad CPU?"

"I... Don't... Care anymore, Plutia..." Neptune sighed softly. "I can't..."

"Come on, Nep Nep!" B-Sha smiled at Neptune while giving her a thumbs up. "You're the great, invincible protagonist. Don't you have plot armor to protect you?"

Neptune smiled, though her eyes started to close again and both Plutia and B-Sha faded away while she sank deeper into the darkness. "No... I'm out..."

"Jeez, you idiot." Neptune blinked as she saw Noire, Vert and Blanc in front of her.

"Noire..?" Neptune asked softly. "Why are you here? Why is your hair black?"

"My hair's always black, you moron." Noire scoffed and grabbed Neptune's right arm, pulling her up. "Come on! Don't you DARE give up! I won't let my rival go away."

"And your friend." Blanc smiled at Noire, who blushed at that. "And you, Neptune, don't you dare lose to this." She gave Neptune a sad look. "I... I don't want to lose my friend!" She grabbed Neptune's left arm and pulled.

"But you're always mad at me." Neptune whispered softly as she started to slip out of their hands. "You told me to leave and never come back."

"I was mad, you dummy!" Blanc yelled and Vert suddenly was in front of Neptune, hugging the purple CPU.

"Ve...r...t?" Neptune asked, sighing as the hug felt nice. "I missed this hug." She rested her head on Vert's breasts and closed her eyes. "I could go away like this, I'll be happy."

"No!" Vert yelled and shook Neptune, causing her to blink and shake her head. "Please! Neptune..." A truly sad look came to Vert's face and Neptune wasn't sure why. "Don't lose. I want you to come back."

"I wish I could..." Neptune whispered softly as she slipped out of Vert's hug and sank deeper into the murky depths below. "I..."

"NEPTUNA!"

"Nep Nep!"

"Nep-ko!"

"Huh?" Neptune looked around. "P-Ko? Compa? Iffy?" Her eyes were mostly shut and she looked around in confusion as she saw IF, Compa and Peashy in front of her. "...Why are you two kids again?"

"Nep-ko!" IF was suddenly hugging Neptune and crying. "Mommy! Please! Don't... Don't lose! I'll never forgive you if you lose!"

"Nep Nep!" Compa hugged Neptune as well. "Please? Don't make Iffy and Ploo Ploo cry if you go. You'll make Ge Ge sad as well."

"Neptuna!" Peashy tackled the whole group at once. "No going bad."

"I..." Neptune blinked several times. "...Why? Why are you all..."

"NEPTUNE!"

Neptune tried to turn around but felt a pair of modest boobs press against her from behind as a pair of arms wrapped around her shoulders from behind. "...Nepgear..?" She whispered and looked down at the three kids that were hugging her and put her hands on the arms around her body. "...My family..." Tears filled her eyes as her body started to glow blue and white. "That's right, the Fearicite lied, it made me feel like I was alone..."

The three children let go of the hug, as did Nepgear as they got in front of her and were joined by Vert, Noire, Blanc, Plutia, B-Sha, Histoire, Uzume, Umio and even her bigger self was there.

"Thank you." Neptune smiled as each one disappeared in her mind, leaving her with just Uzume. "Uzume?"

"Don't lose, Nepsy." She made a fist and held it in front of her. "I won't let you face this alone. I swear."

Neptune smiled and made a fist of her own before bumping her knuckles against Uzume's fist. "I won't lose." She smiled as Uzume faded away. "Thanks, everyone, for being there." A warm, blue glow covered her and she closed her eyes as she floated upwards through the murk and sludge.

(-)

"Huh?" The scientist looking over Neptune stared in surprise as her body seemed to go calm while the lightning crackled across her body. "Did she die?" Looking at the datapad revealed that, no, Neptune was not dead as her life signs were still quite strong. "So what's going on?"

Suddenly there was a burst of energy from Neptune that blasted the bed and shackles apart and destroyed the equipment in the room while knocking everyone away from her. Her body floated in mid-air while black, white, red and gold energy surrounded her form. Lightning bolts of energy lashed out, striking at the equipment and destroying most of it while Neptune herself, despite the chaotic energy storm around her, remained calm and collected in the center of the energy mass.

(-)

"Well, Nepsy, color me impressed." Kurome smiled at Neptune as they ascended through the murk and muck. "You're almost free. Well, almost..." She smirked and snapped her fingers, a mirror forming in front of Neptune while Kurome slipped behind Neptune and wrapped her arms around Neptune's mid-section. "Look at you, such a big, nasty girl." She gave Neptune a light peck on the cheek and giggled at the dirty look Neptune gave her.

"You showed me that I was a Void last time." Neptune commented as she looked at her face. "I don't believe you."

"Oh, trust me, that was what you were becoming. You'll still end up there one day. But right now..." Kurome trailed off and gently carressed Neptune's chin. "This is what you really are right now."

Neptune looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair had gotten slightly longer with her hair still being lightly purple, but now there was red and black stripes going down her hair. But what made her most nervous was the fact that her left eye was covered in shadow and lightly glowing. "I..."

Kurome smiled while hugging Neptune and whispered softly, almost seductively, in her ear. "Even if you don't become a Void now, Nepsy... You can't stop it. Every time you draw upon your power... Every time you transform... The corruption will spread and get worse. Eventually you'll transform into a Void without warning."

"But..." Neptune stared as she got closer to the surface of the murky and dark depths of her being. "I fought it off."

Kurome chuckled and got in front of Neptune, smiling at her. "Is that what you think? You silly girl. Even if you fought off the Fearicite corruption this time, your being, your very essence is tainted beyond repair now." Neptune stared at her blankly and Kurome merely chuckled at her. "You will become a Void." She gave Neptune a toothy grin while she chuckled. "It is unavoidable, Nepsy. Becoming a Void... Is your destiny."

Neptune shivered as she broke through the surface and the murky, dark depths of her being and Kurome both disappeared in a flash of light.

(-)

Neptune gasped and took a deep breath as she regained consciousness. "What the Nep is going on?"

"I would like to know that myself." Neptune blinked as she saw a vaguely familiar middle aged man in a black suit standing in front of her with his arms crossed over his chest. "I get back to the Basilicom and there's a bunch of people running around like crazy because of a freak lightning storm because of you. And that was two days ago."

"Well..." Neptune tried to move and blinked as she realized that she couldn't move an inch. She looked at her arms and saw that they were in giant shackles that were part of a three ring system and looking down she saw that her feet were also in similar shackles and from the way her whole body felt cool, she could tell that she didn't have any clothes on. "...You dirty old man!"

"H-huh?!" The man jerked in surprise. "What gives you the right to say that about me?"

"I'm helpless, naked and you're a man." Neptune answered him, giving him a dirty look. "You probably want to do perverted, mean and nasty things to my cute little loli body and..."

"Would you stop it?" The man asked her, annoyance in his voice. "First of all, I've been married, so why would I want some under-developed, inexperienced little girl?" He looked at Neptune in confusion as she suddenly did a full body blush. "...Wait, you're not inexperienced?"

Neptune giggled nervously. "Ah heh... My body's well sampled and I certainly can't get married anymore."

"Oh," the man had a rather astounded look on his face. "My apologies for what you had to go through."

"Uh..." Neptune gave him a confused look. "What's with that?"

"Well, regardless, I don't think it's right that a little like you should have lost her virginity before she was fully grown."

Neptune twitched at hearing that. "Hey, buddy, I'm fifty three years old, okay?" The guy gawked at her and Neptune giggled at him. "I'm a CPU, I was born looking like this."

"...Well, it seems like you successfully made a fool out of me." He shook his head. "I guess I could tell you my name. It's Mr. Badd," he raised an eyebrow as Neptune gawked at him. "You know me?"

"Didn't you turn a bunch of little girls into ugly monsters and then turn them back to normal?" Neptune asked and giggled as he gave her a confused look. "I guess you work for Noire in this world too, huh?"

"...I'm going to ignore most of what you said there." Mr. Badd told her. "But I work for Noire, or rather," he chuckled, "I used to work for her. Running the media to feed false information to the general public about their CPU to keep the Fearicite energy charged up was a pain, let me tell you."

"Why?" Neptune asked him. "Why would you..."

"You're a CPU, you should know how the Voids work." Mr. Badd explained to her. "Without the negative emotions from the people, the CPU can't transform or fight."

Neptune hung her head. "But why? Why do you need to?"

"Because the idiot who calls herself a CPU refused to do so." Mr. Badd scoffed. "She cares so much about order that she never realized what it would do to her. So she hired me, since I own the media, to stir up negative emotions for the people, she didn't care to try and do it."

Neptune looked at Mr. Badd. "...It almost sounds like Noire isn't a bad guy." She blinked as Mr. Badd laughed. "What?"

"Good and bad are simple concepts and those who believe in them end up like you; captured, stripped, disgraced and discarded in front of a crowd of people so they know who's in charge."

"...Can you tell me... What's happening to the others?"

Mr. Badd smirked at her. "I don't know if it will do you any good to know, but as we speak, Black Void is locked up in a prison cell all on her own while that older CPU is chained up in another cell all by herself, you're here and the CPU Candidates are currently enjoying some time with Anonydeath."

Neptune paled as she heard that. "No... NO! Lemme go! Lemme go!" She thrashed and struggled but found that her restraints weren't budging. "Please!" She begged Mr. Badd, tears welling up in her eyes and falling down her face. "Please... I can't..." Memories of having to fight Yellow Heart for ten years flooded her mind. "No!" She trembled as she remembered the pain of her daughter not remembering who she was. "Lemme go! Lemme go!"

Mr. Badd frowned as he watched Neptune thrash and struggle to get free. He was interested in knowing just why her hair had streaks of black and red in it now and why her left eye was glowing red. 'In fact, that glow is getting brighter.' He took a step back as the glow became like fire that erupted from her eye as she gave him a pleading look.

"Please... I..." She lowered her head while shuddering and sobbing softly. "I can't go through that again. I fought against my daughter for ten years because she was brainwashed... Please... Let me save her."

Mr. Badd was about to say something about how CPUs couldn't have children, but something stopped him. The way she talked about her daughter, the genuine pain he heard in her voice and the way she was crying now.

Mr. Badd stood there, a contemplative look on his face as he looked at Neptune. "I do deeply apologize, but I cannot let you go." Neptune looked up and the glow in her eye dimmed, revealing her black Sclera and red iris. "I have to go now, but if you feel like talking, just know that whatever you say will be recorded."

Neptune watched as Mr. Badd turned and left. "...Anything I say?" She whispered to herself, before a small smile formed on her face. "Well then..." She took a deep breath. "Neeeep Nep Nep Nep Nep Nep!" She started singing to out loud to pass the time.

Sadly, for the people recording and listening...

She would continue singing those same words for the next ten hours straight.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Noire looked up, glowering at Kei as she walked into the cell room. "What do you want?"

For some reason, Kei had a rather calm expression on her face. "I'm here to offer you a deal." She chuckled as Noire raised an eyebrow at her. "Swear your allegiance to me, right now. Unconditional and you will do whatever I tell you to do, and I'll tell Anonydeath to undo the brainwashing he's doing to your precious little sister." Her voice dripped with mockery and disgust.

"You..." Noire growled at Kei.

"Not only that, I'll let you go and you can be with your little sister without worrying about her, so long as you do what I say."

"Cut the crap," Noire narrowed her eyes at Kei, "we both know that without the Fearicite Crystal, I'm completely powerless and you broke it, remember." She blinked as Kei chuckled. "What's so funny?"

"You think I was studying the Fearicite Crystal for my own amusement?" Kei asked her, though Noire knew the question was rhetorical. "I know its composition... And I can rebuild it." She smiled as Noire's eyes widened in shock and realization. "So how about it? Pledge your loyalty to me, your sister gets freed from the brainwashing and she'll never have to worry about anything ever again and on top of it, I'll rebuild the Fearicite."

"...And how do you know I won't just betray you the instant that you do?" Noire asked and Kei just smirked at her.

"Because your little sister was injected with a nasty concoction." Kei chuckled as Noire went pale and suddenly tried lunging at her, but was stopped as she couldn't move from her position. "Not only does it cause her body to break down at the cellular level, killing her in less than twenty-four hours in the most painful way without a serum that Gernia G. created, I can also detonate it remotely and kill her off."

Noire's pupils were pinpricks as she panted and glared at Kei. "You..."

"Let's not waste time with idle and meaningless threats." Kei smirked at her. "I want your answer and I want it now. Swear yourself loyal to me or you can watch as we turn your baby sister into a perfect killing machine."

Noire could only glare at Kei.

To be continued...

* * *

...Have SOME faith in me, sheesh!


	57. Interlude: Black

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Interlude: Black

"So what's your answer?" Kei asked after a few more seconds of Noire glaring at her. "I don't have all day, so..."

"Fuck off." Noire stated, much to Kei's surprise. "I'm not stupid. If you're going through all of that to keep me in line, you've got plans in place to take care of me the instant I'm inconvenient for you." She glowered at Kei. "Even if I did everything perfectly, you'd still find some way, in the near future, to say that I didn't do enough and you'd kill Uni anyway. And when I eventually turn on you, you'd cut my connection to the Fearicite and kill me off."

"...And here I thought you were a complete idiot." Kei shook her head. "You're just a moron. You know that I uphold my end of the deal."

"But only to the letter, but not the spirit of the agreement." Noire pointed out. "There's no point in talking any further."

"...You really are heartless." Kei sighed and held up her hand, showing a badly cracked and damaged Fearicite crystal, causing Noire to stare at it. "I've almost repaired the Fearicite Crystal, though there's a chunk that's currently in the Planeptune CPU and currently transforming her into a Void." Though Kei was wondering what happened over two days ago and why the Planeptune CPU had suddenly caused the Fearicite energy that had been injected into her to go dormant.

Noire gave her a flat stare. "Why are you telling me this? I don't care about her."

Kei shrugged and put the Fearicite crystal away. "I just felt like it. The next time we meet, Noire..." She gave Noire a nasty grin. "Your sister will be the one executing you."

Noire glared at Kei and waited until she heard the door close behind her before lowering her head as she shuddered. "Uni... I..." Her voice started to crack as her eyes burned. "I never wanted you to become a Void... I wanted my little sister to be happy."

"Why?" Noire whispered as tears escaped her eyes and ran down her face to drip off of her chin. "Why does Uni need to suffer? She doesn't deserve it." Memories came, unbound to Noire as she thought about Uni.

*Flash*

Walking into the Fearicite Chamber, as she had felt a rather strange and unusual fluctuation of her source of power, Noire did a quick scan of the room and found everything to be in order. The chamber was empty, save for a floating, cold rock and a black haired girl with red eyes and a timid expression on her face and... "Wait, what?"

"Um," the girl fidgeted as she looked at the redhead. "My name is Uni..."

"I see..." The redhead sighed softly. "I guess that means you're the CPU Candidate of Lastation then as well as my little sister." Seeing Uni's eyes perk up caused something in Noire to stir, but she pushed it away like she did everything else. Another part of her told her that she needed to hate Uni and be as cruel as possible to her.

Uni fidgeted under Noire's intense gaze. "Ah, um..."

Noire closed her eyes and, much like the first sensation, she forcibly pushed that suggestion away from her mind. While it had been... Comforting and felt natural, she wouldn't do it. "After all, the world will beat her down enough." She whispered.

"Um..." Uni asked, fidgeting in front of Noire. "Did I do something wrong?"

Noire shook her head. "No. Now follow me." Uni nodded as Noire turned to walk out. Before she took one step, she looked over her shoulder. "I forgot, my name is CPU Black Void. When I'm like this, my name is Noire. Don't forget, I'm not telling you again."

Uni nodded and ran after Noire. "Um..." When Noire stopped, she shyly reached out and grabbed Noire's hand and gave it a squeeze. "Can I call you sis?"

Noire fought the urge to pull her hand away from Uni and looked at her, sighing. "Do what you want, I don't care." The next thing she knew, Uni was hugging her and she stiffened, her eyes going wide. "...What are you doing?"

"Hugging you."

Noire sighed and rolled her eyes. "Just stop. I'm a Void. I don't enjoy nice feelings like that." Uni pulled herself away from Noire, looking at her in confusion. "And just so you know, act like this around anyone but me and you'll end up with either a bullet between your eyes or some guy between your legs."

Uni gulped and nodded, she didn't understand that last bit, but decided to not question her big sister. "U...Okay, sis." She trembled as Noire stormed off and she followed after her.

As she walked away, Noire fought the urge to touch where Uni hugged her as her skin felt... Kind of prickly, but in a way that was very pleasant. 'What is this?'

(-)

It was later in the day when Noire got up from her desk and stretched. "Urgh, it's been a long day, huh?" She could go almost a week on little to no sleep if she had to, but she still liked to rest. Walking around her desk, the redhead made her way to her room when she found Uni sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall, sound asleep.

Silently bending over, Noire picked her sister up gently and carried her to her room. When Uni sighed and shifted to cuddle against her, Noire looked at the sleeping girl in confusion.

"Noire..." The girl sighed softly, lovingly in her sleep.

Noire stared at Uni for some time, not moving and just holding her sleeping sister in her arms. After her mind stopped being a swirling mess of emotions, Noire nodded to herself. "Fine, Uni... I'll teach you everything about this world that I can..." She carried Uni to her sister's room and put her onto the bed and under the blankets, tucking the girl in. "...You aren't a human... Maybe..." She moved a loose strand of hair out of the way of Uni's face and felt the corners of her lips moving upwards. "Maybe you and I can get to know each other more later?" Noire whispered before leaving her sister's room.

As she closed the door, Noire narrowed her eyes in thought. "...I can't be there to protect her, my enemies will use her against me, won't they?" She sighed and lowered her head. "I hate this world." She muttered.

In order to protect Uni, to be kind to her...

Noire would have to be distant and cruel to her.

It was enough that she almost sank to the floor and cried.

Almost, because just before she gave into that emotion, a realization came to her. "A bodyguard," she whispered softly, "but I can't trust humans, I need one I can trust..." The progbots were out, they were nothing more than useful idiots and she didn't trust any of her council to help her.

"Well, I guess I have to make my own bodyguard for Uni then." One that wouldn't get tired or need time off to deal with personal issues would be best, but she wanted Uni to be independent. "Hmm... A ninja then?"

She'd figure out all the details later, but for now, Noire needed some sleep.

*End Flashback*

"And a month later, I finished Steamax..." Noire whispered to herself. She had skipped out on sleep, food and even work to build Steamax and make him as perfect as possible.

She shivered and sighed. "Uni... Steamax... I'm so sorry for failing both of you." Noire whispered while slumping as best she could. "Of all the people... You two deserve better than my failures."

End Interlude: Black

* * *

Hey, an interlude for Noire, and it works with the current plot instead of being a "Let's stop what we're doing and look at the past".

What a place to end the week.


	58. Rescue

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 50

"Ah..." Anonydeath said as he looked at Rom, Ram, Peashy, Filyn and Uni as they were all lined up on a long table, strapped down with helmets on their heads and visors over their eyes.

Which was the only clothing any of them had on.

"How are my darling little nudists doing?" Anonydeath asked, knowing that none of them could answer him. "But don't worry, the only reason you're all naked is because your clothes would get in the way of our sensors. I have no interest in such under-developed girls." Well, he could admit that Uni was developed enough that if he was interested in her he'd be doing lewd things to her.

Looking at the data on his computers, he nodded as he saw that the five of them had their minds almost completely re-written. "Ninety to ninety-three percent complete, huh?" Shrugging, he walked by the nude girls and into another room where he watched as the blue robot that had been working with Noire was being rebuilt with a stronger and better body. "How is the programming coming along?" He asked while looking at the blue ninja robot, noting that it was mostly done, other than the armor on the body.

"Pretty well." One of the technicians said to Anonydeath. "Most of it was still there and undamaged, just a few lines of code that need to be fixed and replaced."

"Good. Lady Kei would be most... Upset if we delayed any longer than we have to." Anonydeath told the technician. "It's almost a waste." The man in the pink power armor whispered softly. "It's so easy to get away with all of this." As much fun as it was to do this to people, Anonydeath didn't feel right in doing what he was doing.

Not that he felt bad. But he felt... So bored because everything was going so well.

"Oh well, no point in complaining." Anonydeath said gleefully as he walked back into the room to observe the final moments when the brainwashing on the CPU Candidates was complete. "To think that the one-eyed girl was a CPU Candidate as well." Which was odd, since she had no Fearicite energy in her body, unlike the other four. "As if she wasn't born from Fearicite." He knew it wasn't possible, but he didn't care one way or the other. He had other things to worry about.

Like finding time to get to the bathroom without being seen as soon as the brainwashing was complete on the CPU Candidates.

(-)

Elsewhere in Lastation...

"Ah, Jerbins," the security chief smiled at the officer. "You know that you could have gone home or have at least taken your uniform off while you were here the past two days."

Jerbins grimaced slightly. "It's okay, chief, I'm used to being grungy." Which was true, but not in the way that the security chief thought.

"Very well." The security chief nodded at Jerbins. "Anyway, the system came on a few hours ago and we got those two processed, so we're shipping them to the Basilicom to be dealt with there. You said you wanted to take them?" Jerbins nodded and the chief smiled. "You're a good worker. Keep this up and you'll be taking my job in no time."

"If you say so, sir." Jerbins said and walked back to the cages that Warechu and Gust were in. "Alright you two, we're shipping you to the Basilicom."

"Finally." Gust grumbled as she glowered at Jerbins. "Gust is cramped up and needs to poop."

"...We'll stop at the bathrooms for you before we leave." Jerbins called out to a female officer to take Gust to the restrooms.

(-)

An hour later...

"Ahhhh..." Gust sighed and giggled from the back seat of the security car while the others looked at her weirdly. "Gust really needed to go."

"You plugged the toilets up on three floors... FROM ONE TOILET!" The driver yelled and Gust just stuck her tongue out at him. "HOW?!"

"Gust REALLY needed to poop."

"Next time, don't hold it for two days, chu." Warechu muttered and shook his head while Gust stuck her tongue out at him.

Jerbins coughed to catch the driver's attention. "We should hurry. I heard that there was something major happening at the Basilicom today."

"Ah yes!" The driver nodded and the air car jerked before flying up and towards the Basilicom. "The public execution of the enemies of the state." Both Gust and Warechu stared in shock. "Oh, not you two, though you'll be there in a couple of days, I'm talking about the CPUs that tried to destroy Lastation. Thanks to Lady Kei they've been brought to justice and will be removed from this world shortly."

"...Gust has a bad feeling." The bunny girl muttered softly.

"I hope Compa's okay, Chu..." Warechu muttered, wondering what was happening with Compa and IF and the disposed of security officer.

(-)

At the hospital...

"So that's what's going on, huh?" IF muttered as she heard the story from Compa and Chian. "Um, where's..."

"Linda knocked out the security guard, disguised herself after him," and Compa had no clue that Linda was that good with her disguises, why, if she didn't know that Linda was impersonating the security guard right now, she never would have guessed that the he that disappeared a couple of days ago was a girl right now. "And we disposed of the security officer after the others left."

"Disposed of?" IF asked, wondering what Compa meant by that.

(-)

Jerbins wondered how he ended up waking up in a cooler of food...

...While naked...

...And having several female cooks glaring at him. "Yes?"

"GET OUT! THIS IS UNSANITARY!"

(-)

After arriving at the Basilicom, the group was quickly moved through the Basilicom, with Jerbins, Gust and Warechu looking around to take in the sights. The building itself was sleek and had lots of computer terminals and even holographic ones with screens all over the place.

"First time you've been to the Lastation Basilicom?" The guard leading Jerbins, Gust and Warechu to the holding cells asked. "Well, two enemies of the state should take things in, since you'll be executed in a day or two."

"Gust is wondering why we're being led through the front door. Aren't you worried that Gust is super dangerous and can kill everyone with a mind laser?"

The guard laughed at Gust. "If you had that power, you would have already used it." Gust sighed, acknowledging that fact. "Besides, from what the paperwork said, you two were merely accomplists who helped the enemy CPUs into Lastation." The guard opened a door and they went inside a room that had a large staircase that led down to a bunch of cages. "Anyway, we'll put you in these cages to hold you before you, WAAAAGH!" The guard screamed as he was hit from behind and went falling, tumbling and crashing down the stairs.

"Jeez, Gust!" Jerbins said with a different voice before pulling off his helmet, revealing Linda's face. "You didn't need to headbutt him off the stairs..." She had a disturbed look on her face as Gust gave her a smug look.

"I think he's either dead or badly hurt, Chu." Warechu muttered as Linda pulled out some keys to undo their shackles.

Linda stripped out of the guard uniform, leaving her in just a pair of shorts and her bra. "What?" She asked as she put her boots back on.

"I thought you were going to strip down to your panties." Warechu said, getting an annoyed look from Linda.

"Ask Compa to prance around her underwear when you're alone if you want to see a girl in her underwear so badly." Linda grumbled at him. "Come on." The three got to the bottom of the stairs quickly and checked on the guard to find that he was alive, but out cold from falling down the stairs. "Well, at least he's alive." Linda muttered and swiped his keys. "Come on! Let's find Chrome and the others and blow this taco stand."

"There are tacos?" Both Gust and Warechu asked at the same time, only to get a groan from Linda.

"Knock it off you two." Linda muttered as they walked around the cells and noticed that most of them were empty, which probably made sense, if the people of Lastation eliminated everyone who became an enemy of the country, then the holding cells for them wouldn't be very occupied. "Let's find everyone and get out of here."

The group quickly made their way around before finding an unmarked door that was locked. Thankfully with the keys they swiped from the guard, it was quickly opened and they went inside.

All they found were a bunch of holding lockers, most of which were unopened. The few that were locked up were opened up and the group discovered that it was the clothes that their friends had been wearing.

"Let's take all of this with us." Linda said and put the clothes they found in their inventory. "I don't recognize these outfits..." A red dress and other clothes didn't stand out in her mind.

"Let's take them with us, chu." Warechu said as he pulled out Neptune's hooded parka. "Doesn't Neptune have a phone that can call her home?"

"What?" Linda told him. "You want to call her family back in her world and tell them that something bad happened to Neptune?"

"Fair point." Warechu said as he handed the parka off to Linda.

"Gust wonders if maybe everyone down here is naked." Gust muttered as she found Chrome's outfit. "Though Gust is sure that some people wouldn't complain about that."

"Let's just get out of here before we get caught." Linda said as they quickly checked the other lockers and found something in one of them that looked like a wrist strap with a small computer on it. Grabbing it, Linda put it in her pocket and the group ran out of the room while looking up and down the various corridors of cells for anyone.

It was nearly fifteen minutes later when they finally found someone.

"Chrome!" Linda said as she stared at Chrome, who was stripped down to her underwear while chained to the wall.

"I was wondering what was taking you all so long." Chrome chuckled at them. "Hurry up, I'm worried about Neptune and the others."

After freeing Chrome and giving her her clothes back, Linda pulled out the item she found. "Hey, do you know what this is?"

"Hmm?" Chrome asked as she finished tying her shoes and took the device from Linda. "Never saw it before." Touching the screen, she saw some numbers light up on it. "A watch huh? Neat." She put it on her right wrist and blinked as her body was covered in a green light from the device for a moment. "What was that?" She asked and looked at the small computer on her wrist, only to see that it was dark. "Whatever."

"Why'd you put it on?" Linda asked.

"Always wanted a wristwatch, okay?" Chrome muttered and rolled her eyes as everyone looked at her. "I had one when I was an active CPU that broke a few days before Filyn was born and was having a new one made when everything went to hell, alright?"

"So, do you know where the others are at?" Linda asked, getting a negative response from Chrome.

"No. I've been by myself for three days." She sighed and grimaced as her stomach gurgled. "Good thing I'm not human, I'd be dead from dehydration by now."

"Let's find the others." Linda said as they left the holding cells room and went into another room. "Huh, what's this?" She asked as she opened another door and checked inside. "What the heck!?"

The four of them went inside and found a chained up Noire, who looked up at them with some anger and distrust, before she sighed and lowered her head. "Come to laugh at a failure of a CPU? One who couldn't protect herself, her nation or her little sister?"

"HUH?!" Linda, Gust and Warechu all asked at the same time, causing Noire to look up at them.

"I have nothing left, I don't care what else is going to happen today. Kei will be here soon to have me executed by Uni." Noire sighed and lowered her head. "I have nothing. I'm powerless, my sister is being used as a weapon right now, the Fearicite that powered me is destroyed, Steamax is destroyed, so go ahead, laugh at me like you did when I was powerless, like you do behind my back when I'm not around..."

"Man, you're taking this pretty hard, huh?" Chrome asked, causing Noire to raise her head and look at her in confusion. "You're off by a little bit though. I'm a former CPU of Gamworld. I'm Chrome Heart of Eden."

"...Heart?" Noire asked softly, her eyes showing confusion. "That other CPU called herself Purple Heart. What's going on?"

"Before the Fearicite," Chrome started to explain, "all CPUs were known as Hearts. We did what we could to ensure that our people loved us and believed in us while guiding them and showing them how to live. That changed sixty years ago though."

"I almost do want to laugh." Linda said as she glared at Noire. "You Voids fucked this world up. Your kind burned IF so badly that she's in the hospital now because her body can't handle any sort of damage to it."

"And Compa lost her arms because of your kind." Warechu glared at Noire. "Maybe we should leave her?"

"Gust wouldn't complain." The bunny girl glared at Noire, who simply sighed and nodded.

"I would deserve it." Noire said to them.

Chrome looked at Noire for a few moments in silence before looking at Linda. "Give me the keys." Linda gave her a confused look. "You weren't there. I was. She fought to save Neptune and the others."

Linda sighed and handed the keys over. "If you think it's a good idea. I'm not so sure."

Chrome walked over to Noire's cell and unlocked it before stepping inside to look at the CPU. "Tell me something, Void..." Noire gave her a confused look. "Will you help us?"

"...I don't..." Noire began, before sighing. "Fuck it, you said you were a CPU, right?" Chrome nodded and Noire gave her a sharp look. "...Fine, you want to know the truth? I'm scared out of my mind at the thought of them doing something to Uni. I don't care what happens to me, Lastation or those fucking traitors or any of the people in this place so long as she's safe!" Chrome raised an eyebrow and Noire snarled at her. "I'm sick of this shit! I'm sick of living day in and day out worried that my enemies will use her against me."

"I'm honestly surprised a Void would care about her little sister." Chrome couldn't keep the surprise out of her voice.

"They already figured out that I cared for Uni." Noire whispered and lowered her head. "I'm already beaten. What else do I have left? I'm hanging here in my underwear, my sister is being used as a weapon and I lost Steamax."

Chrome stared at Noire for almost a minute, when the redhead raised her head up to look at Chrome, she sighed. "I'll probably regret this, but right now, I'm sure that we're going to need your help." She reached up and undid the shackles holding Noire up, allowing the redhead to fall to the floor.

"Thank you." Noire said while rubbing her wrists. "Though I don't know what good I'll be right now. Wish I had my outfit at least."

"I don't mind, Chu." Warechu said and Noire rolled her eyes at him.

"Just so you know, rat, my panties cover my butt completely, so don't hope you can get a free peek at my rear, okay?" Noire scoffed at him while looking at Chrome. "So now what?"

"Got any weapons that can be used against them?"

Noire sighed softly. "I don't know. I'd never build anything that could be used by anyone and... Wait, what's that?" She pointed at Chrome's wrist.

"This?" Chrome looked at her wrist. "A fancy wristwatch, I don't..."

"That... Might be useful for something." Noire muttered, trying to remember what it was. "I think I had some sort of weapon system on something like that."

"If it helps," Gust spoke up while ignoring how Warechu was trying to slip behind Noire to get a look at her backside, "Chrome was covered in a green light."

"Sounds like those experimental..." Noire's eyes widened. "Wait, green light..." A grin came to her face as she started to laugh. "Ohohohohohohoho!" She put her hand over her mouth as she tried to keep her voice down. "I just remembered something about that."

"What?" Chrome asked and Noire smirked at her.

"I'll tell you, but first, put your thumb on the screen and hold it for..." Noire began to explain how to work the device for Chrome. "And there you go, just tap it and say access when you need it."

"Interesting." Chrome muttered softly.

"Yeah, about as interesting as watching Warechu trying to see if he can see your bare ass or something." Linda muttered, smirking as Warechu stiffened in fright.

Noire looked at the rat and rolled her eyes at him. "Whatever, let's go."

"Like that?" Gust pointed to Noire.

"Unless one of you has my red dress, then yes!" Noire snapped at the bunny girl. "I'm not going to stop and shower and get a new dress on, even if I could use it."

"Is this your dress?" Linda asked and pulled it out of her inventory. "We found this down in a storage locker."

"Yes." Noire said as she took it from Linda. "Give me a couple of minutes to get dressed."

(-)

Less than two minutes later, the group was on an elevator that had been behind a hidden wall and going up at a fast pace.

"I'm rather impressed by this." Chrome said to Noire. The elevator was rather small, but they were able to all fit in it.

"I'm the only one who knows." Noire told her. "I didn't even tell Uni because I thought of this situation." She sighed as the elevator got above ground and the others in the elevator were shocked at they could see out of it. "One way glass is pretty useful, huh?"

"So why do you have this anyway?" Linda asked Noire, who crossed her arms and said nothing. "Seriously? I could have left you to rot you know?"

"...I absolutely hate humans." Noire told Linda and she gave the green-haired girl a look that was pure animosity and disgust. "You're born with the freedom to grow up, find people to trust, love, marry and have children with. You also have the freedom to choose whatever you want in life. Yet all I see are people who choose to manipulate, betray and control for any little sliver of power that they can get their hands on. Offer ten people the chance to have a nice life and never need to worry about expenses again and there's no depths of disgust they won't sink to obtain it."

Before Noire or Linda could say anything more, Chrome spoke up, "it's true. Humans are selfish and greedy. That's why as a CPU, you're supposed to guide them so they can overcome those limits."

Noire scoffed at her. "There isn't a single human in this rotten world that's worth trying to guide. Give humans an inch of freedom and they'll use it to trample all over you while blaming you for anything that goes wrong in their lives."

Linda growled and was about to say something when Gust spoke up. "Gust thinks..." She looked at Noire, "that you're wrong." Noire gave her a dirty look and the bunny girl just stared back, defiant. "Gust hated all CPUs for years. White Void was the CPU of Lowee and tormented everyone for years." Gust continued to stare at Noire defiantly. "That carried over to Rom and Ram, even though they were innocent little girls, Gust hated them because they were CPUs. When Neptune showed Gust that CPUs could be trusted, Gust understood... That maybe Gust was wrong about CPUs." Her expression softened as Noire's face got contemplative. "Maybe you're wrong about humans?"

"If you hate humans so much, Chu..." Warechu spoke up, "why don't you kill them all off?"

Noire scoffed at him. "Too much of a pain."

"Or maybe," Gust began, "you know, deep down, that not all humans are bad."

Noire snorted at her. "No offense, rabbit, but I've yet to meet a single human that's worth anything more than simply how much use I can get out of them before getting rid of them before they betray me."

"And it looks like you weren't very successful on that front." Chrome pointed out to her.

Noire closed her eyes and sighed softly. "I fully expected Kei to betray me." She leaned against the wall and slumped slightly, her hair covering her eyes. "I just wish I had kept a closer eye on her and the rest of the council."

Linda, Gust and Warechu looked at Noire and none of them could see a vile, disgusting monster like White Void had been, or what they heard Green and Iris Void had been.

What they saw was someone who was tired and alone.

"So," Linda spoke up as she looked up, "how much longer until we get to wherever it is we're going?"

"We're heading to my office, so the top floor." Noire said. "This should drop us off in my secret office." She rolled her eyes at the looks she got. "I had it made when I was a candidate, okay? Anyway, there's stuff there that might help us out."

Chrome nodded and looked out and down through the one-way glass. 'Hang on, Neptune, Filyn, everyone. We're going to save all of you.'

To be continued...

* * *

Noire's "Ohohohohoho" laughter there was spur of the moment, but her first English VA (Erin Fitzgerald) voiced Kodachi Kuno from the Ranma 1/2 English dub in later seasons and that character was known for laughing like that. So, actor allusion! Hooray!

But, sadly, due to work taking a toll on my ability to write (seriously, I'm dead tired after work) I'm only going to post 3 chapters this week, so I don't get too caught up with what I've already written.


	59. Hatred

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

A rather short chapter, sadly it just ended up being that way.

* * *

Chapter 51

"Neeeep Nep Nep Nep Nep Nep!" Neptune sang out loud as she tried to pass the time. Sure, her throat was getting a bit raw and her voice was starting to crack, but she didn't want to hang out in that room all by herself and do NOTHING!

Besides, if she made the people who were peeping on her upset, then it was fine.

"WILL YOU NEPPING STOP IT?!" A voice over the intercom yelled at Neptune.

Neptune smirked as her left eye glowed and throbbed. "I'll stop when you let me go."

"Neppit! That's it! Get her the Nep out of there and have them deal with her!"

Neptune chuckled as she heard the door open up. "About ti...me?" Her chuckling died off and her face paled as she saw who was in front of her. "P...Ko? Rom?"

Both of them were clothed in sleek, black leotard-like uniforms and both of them looked at her with neutral expressions on their faces and Neptune saw the way their eyes seemed to be slightly off and trembled. "You two... They did it... You're under their control, aren't you?" Memories of fighting against Yellow Heart and of being forced to fight her sister when she was brainwashed ran through her mind. "No..." She hung her head as tears fell from her eyes. "I failed again, didn't I?"

_"Face it, Nepsy..."_ Her pupils shrank as she heard Kurome's voice in her ear. _"These people aren't worth saving. Look what they're doing to your beloved daughter and your new little sisters."_

Neptune started to breathe heavily as she felt a surge of rage she had never felt before. "Get out of my head, Kurome." She growled softly.

_"Aww, but Nepsy, look, they're finally letting you out of your confinement, aren't you happy?"_

As she got to the ground, Neptune clutched at her left eye while looking at Rom and Peashy with her right eye while on her knees. "Why? Don't you two recognize me?"

"You're an enemy of Lastation and Mistress Kei." Rom told her in a tone that had none of its usual kindness or compassion. "That's all that's needed to know."

"Let's go." Peashy approached Neptune and grabbed her hands before forcing them behind her while Rom cast a spell to bind Neptune's hands behind her back.

"As the CPU Candidates of Lastation, we will show Mistress Kei that we deserve to be by her side." Rom said as they pushed the naked Neptune out of the room and down the hallway.

"Can I at least have some clothes?" Neptune asked as she blushed while people stopped to look at her naked body. "Pretty please? I don't like being stared at while naked."

"No." Both Peashy and Rom said at the same time.

"With that collar on your neck," Rom said to Neptune as they turned a corner, "even if you have access to your CPU powers, you won't be able to use them."

"Don't you two know me?" Neptune asked, knowing that they likely didn't, if Anonydeath was the one in charge of their brainwashing, but that didn't mean that she couldn't try to get through to who they really were.

"Mistress Kei's enemy, that's all we need to know." Rom said and Neptune fought the urge to cry.

'Dammit, not again.' Neptune thought to herself.

(-)

Meanwhile...

When the elevator stopped, Noire stepped out, followed by Chrome, Linda, Gust and Warechu. "Okay, no one's here. Let's grab some stuff and get out of here."

"Really?" A voice spoke up and Noire's pupils shrank as she spun around to see Uni in a black outfit standing there as the air around her shimmered while she pointed her Uzis at Noire. "You're an enemy of Lastation. Good job finding a secret passage that even mistress Kei doesn't know about."

"How did you get here so fast?!" Linda yelled at Uni, who merely smirked at her while her red eyes looked at Linda cruelly.

"There are plenty of turbo lifts in this place. As for finding this place, it was well hidden, but not so much that Steamax couldn't find it with his scanners." The air next to her shimmered and Steamax stepped out and Noire sighed softly as she saw the robot she built to protect Uni stood next to her little sister to arrest them.

"...So what will happen to us?" Noire asked, her voice tired.

"Either you die like a dog here, or you get to have some dignity and have the people watch as you get executed." Uni told her. "So what's your decision?"

"Either way I die, huh?" Noire sighed, her voice showing defeat. "...Just do what you want with me, I'm done."

"Lady Uni," Steamax spoke up, "Mistress Kei wants her executed in front of the people if possible."

"Of course." Uni nodded and looked at the others. "You're all coming with. I can't guarantee that my trigger finger won't get itchy and accidentally do more damage to you than any of you want. At least with the execution you'd get a few more minutes to live."

"...Dammit." Chrome really couldn't bring herself to try and fight back against Uni. "What did they do to you?"

"Mistress Kei and Master Anonydeath showed me the truth, nothing more." Uni told her. "We should hurry before Filyn comes looking for us."

Chrome sighed and slowly raised her hands up. "Very well... I surrender." As they were forced to walk in front of them, she sighed and wondered what was the point of getting out of prison if they were just going to be captured right away.

"This stinks." Gust muttered and looked at Linda before looking back at Uni. "Can you let Linda go?" Uni raised an eyebrow while Linda looked at Gust in confusion. "Her girlfriend is in the hospital and Linda is innocent."

"Gust..." Linda said softly, smiling at the bunny girl.

"You're all dangerous enemies of the state, you get no quarter." Uni proclaimed and motioned with her Uzis to the side. "Now move."

The group left the hidden office and made their way to a larger elevator where Filyn, who was wearing a hard cover eye-patch instead of her typical one, and Ram, both of whom were wearing similar outfits to Uni, were waiting for them. Seeing the two girls give the group hostile looks, Chrome found that she, like Noire, suddenly felt like nothing mattered as they were taken onto the turbo lift and moved to the ground floor of the Basilicom.

(-)

A little later...

"Greetings everyone." Kei smiled as she stood in front of a crowd of people in front of the Basilicom. "I would like to thank all of you for showing up on such short notice." She then gestured to the media. "And to the intrepid reporters who showed up on such short notice as well, I thank you for appearing for this public execution of the traitorous former CPU of Lastation as well as the enemy CPUs of Planeptune and Eden and their associates."

Behind her, Neptune, Noire, Chrome, Linda and Gust were all on their knees with their arms tied behind their backs. Warechu was in a cage.

In front of Noire, Uni stood with a powerful energy rifle in her hands. In front of Chrome stood Filyn with a spear of some sort in her hands. In front of Neptune was Rom while Peashy stood in front of Gust while Ram stood in front of Linda.

Noire looked up with a completely defeated expression as she looked at Uni. "...Should I have been nicer to you? Uni?" Tears welled up in her eyes as she tried to blink them away. "I'm sorry I failed you."

"Noire..." Neptune spoke up as she looked at the redhead. "I'm sorry too." Noire gave her a confused look. "I wanted to save Uni, I didn't realize how bad things were here."

"...I'm sorry too..." Noire said to her. "I allowed myself to be manipulated by Kei. If I hadn't... I don't know." She sighed, not knowing how things would have been different had she not been tricked by someone close to her.

"...And before I forget," Kei motioned to Gernia G., who was standing there next to her. "This is the former criminal Gernia G., who shall be in charge of science, medicine and technological advancement going forward." Gernia G. smiled and bowed to Kei. "It was with her help that we were able to bring this lawless CPU and aggressors to justice. Speaking of which, it's time for the public execution of the enemies of the state." She smirked and turned to the group. "And we'll start with the former CPU of Lastation, Black Void. Uni, will you start us off?"

"Of course, Mistress Kei." Uni nodded and moved her rifle to point it at Noire's head. "Any last words?"

"...I never wanted this for you, Uni." Noire said, no longer caring who heard her. "I wanted you to live a happy life and not worry about my enemies."

"Enough!" Kei demanded. "Uni, be a good girl and eliminate her."

"Of course." Uni nodded and flipped a switch as the rifle charged with power. "Goodbye... Former CPU Black Void."

She pulled the trigger and Noire's world was a flash of white light.

To be continued...

* * *

...Sunnvabitch! Damn cliffhangers!

Well, enjoy Thanksgiving everyone!


	60. Split

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Hoo boy, that cliffhanger had a lot of people upset, huh?

The last chapter's name was "Hatred" because I expected a bunch to go my way.

Anyway, have a special Turkey Day update. I'm off till Monday.

* * *

Chapter 52

It took Kei everything she had to not break out in cheers or applause as she watched Uni kill Noire. 'As soon as I finish repairing the Fearicite, I'll release Uni from her brainwashing just long enough so she can watch a video of her executing her sister.' It would be glorious and Kei knew that Uni would need a collar on her to control her afterword, but it would be worth it in the end. "Excellent, now... Wait," Kei's pupils shrank as she looked at where Noire was.

Or rather, wasn't at. "What the hell?"

"My apologies, Lady Noire." A male voice spoke up and Kei, Gernia G. and the CPU Candidates turned to see Steamax holding Noire in a seating position in his left arm with Chrome over both of his shoulders in a fireman's carry, Linda under his right arm, Neptune was laying across Steamax's head while Gust found herself hanging off his arm and Warechu's cage was being held up by Steamax's right foot.

No one could react, the sight was rather hilarious.

"St...Steamax?" Noire asked as the robot put her and everyone else down.

"Yes." He nodded to her. "I apologize for allowing myself to be defeated and used against you. Although, this time, I did not grab either of your boobs or your butt."

Noire blushed as she heard that. "Idiot, you didn't need to say that part out loud." She muttered, though she was thankful that he remembered what she had told him about rescuing people.

"That's nice, but I'm still naked!" Neptune cried out before squawking as something was thrown in her face. "My hoodie!"

"Yeah, found it in the lockers." Linda muttered as she, Gust and Warechu gave Neptune a little privacy to get her outfit on while standing in front of her so that people wouldn't gawk at her.

"Thanks." Neptune smiled after getting dressed.

"HOW?!" Kei snarled at Steamax. "HOW THE HELL DID YOU BETRAY ME?!"

"I betrayed no one!" Steamax countered while throwing his arm to the side as his eyes glowed and narrowed at Kei. "You may have rebuilt me and reprogrammed me to follow along with your directives, but I had anticipated that I would be rebuilt when your giant robot injured me and made sure to double and triple backup my precious memories of Lady Noire and Lady Uni."

"Steamax..." Noire stared at the robot. "Why? I never programmed you to be loyal to me."

"It's not about programming, Lady Noire." Steamax told her. "I decided, on my own, as I watched how you could not be with your sister and as I listened to how you refused to trust anyone, that even if you could trust no one, then at least you could trust me."

Noire blushed as she listened to that. It felt... Really nice to have someone who she could trust. "...Thank you."

Chrome ignored them as she used her razor wire to cut open the cage that Warechu was in. "So, as heartwarming as this all is, we have a problem..." She gestured to the CPU Candidates. "I have no way of fighting them without seriously hurting them."

"And I'd ask that you don't hurt my sister either." Noire said as she pulled out her rapier and used it on the collar around her neck to cut it off. Turning to Neptune, she walked over and repeated the action there. "Can you transform?"

Neptune nodded but shivered. "Not a good idea." Noire gave her a confused look and Neptune's eye throbbed. "They shoved a chunk of Fearicite into my Share Crystal."

"WHAT?!" Chrome, Linda, Gust and Warechu all yelled at the same time.

Neptune's lips trembled. "I'm sorry, but I can't... It's turning me into a Void and I can't..."

"Oh for fuck's sake!" Kei yelled and looked at the Candidates. "You want to prove yourselves useful to me! END THEIR LIVES!"

"Yes, Mistress Kei!" They said and turned to Neptune and the others. While Peashy, Rom, Ram and Filyn ran forward, Uni stood her ground and fired a blue laser beam at the group, who all dodged out of the way as the blast hit the Basilicom behind them, damaging it.

"Lady Noire, I will..." Steamax paused as several Progbots suddenly took off into the air. "I will deal with those things!" He yelled back while the crowd quickly started to stampede away from the impending fight.

Noire nodded at him and grabbed Neptune. "Come with me!" She yelled and pulled Neptune around the corner of the Basilicom as Uni took another shot at them, missing them but clipping the building. "Listen, this is going to sound weird, but I need you to let me..."

"Can you deal with the Fearicite?" Neptune asked, a serious look on her face and Noire nodded. "Then do what you need to do."

Noire nodded and put her hand on Neptune's chest and closed her eyes. When Noire's hand sank into Neptune's chest, the shorter CPU stared with her mis-matched eyes in shock. "I've never been fisted before, but I thought you shoved your hand into my vagina, not my chest."

Noire gave her a dirty look while Neptune giggled. "I'm not shoving my fist into you, I'm reaching out to my Fearicite crystal." She looked at her hand and smirked. "Though I do admit it does look like I'm fisting you."

Both of them had disturbed looks on their faces.

"...Noire, do you... Watch that stuff?" Neptune asked.

"Once out of morbid curiosity." Noire admitted as she found what she was looking for and slowly pulled it and Neptune's Share Crystal out of Neptune's body. "Don't ask me how anyone finds that erotic."

"I don't know either." Neptune muttered as she watched Noire grab her Share Crystal with her right hand and she grabbed at the sliver of Fearicite that was embedded into it with her left hand and slowly pulled it out. "...My Share Crystal..." She whimpered softly as she saw how dim and dark it was.

"I take it this is supposed to be a brighter color?" Noire asked as she pulled the shard of Fearicite out of Neptune's Share Crystal as an explosion happened near them. "Here." She gave the Share Crystal back to Neptune, who sighed as she absorbed it back into herself.

"How did you do that anyway?" Neptune asked and Noire smirked at her.

"About twenty-five years ago, some idiot did the same thing to me and tried to use the power for herself and ended up using some sort of weird technology to fuse herself with my Fearicite Crystal." Neptune nodded as Noire continued the story. "Some blue-haired moron. She used it to gain a CPU-like form and I figured out how she did it to me so I returned the favor and pulled my Fearicite Crystal out of her body back then."

"...Did she have big boobs and horns on her head?" Neptune asked and Noire nodded. "Huh, so Rei was here too."

"That was her name?" Noire asked, confused. "Bah, I don't know, I killed her right after I got my powers back. And, besides, how do you think I ripped that excess Fearicite energy out of you the last time?" Neptune jerked in surprise. "Yeah, I shoved my fist into your chest then too."

"Um, thank you." Neptune looked at Noire nervously. "That's twice now you helped me." She could still feel the Fearicite corruption in her body, but it wasn't as pronounced as it was before.

"Whatever." Noire said as she looked back at the fight and grimaced as she saw that the CPU Candidates were gaining ground on the humans and that other CPU. "This is a lovely," she ducked back as a beam shot through where her head was a moment ago. "How do you deal with this?"

"Um..." Neptune spoke up and looked at Noire. "I don't know if you want to hear this, but the only way to beat brainwashing is to give the person who's been a brainwashed a big spanking." Noire gave her a confused look and Neptune giggled softly. "It worked on Rom, Ram, P-Ko and me when we were all brainwashed in the past." While she hadn't been there for Rom and Ram's brainwashing, being bound up in the graveyard at that time, she did hear about it from Nepgear after the fact.

"...A spanking?" Noire gave Neptune a flat stare. "Am I supposed to bent Uni over my lap, bare her butt for everyone to ogle and paddle her rear end in front of everyone or something?"

"...Hot, but no." Neptune blushed at that thought and giggled. "Nah, we just need to beat them until they can't fight back and then when they're at their weakest, we break through the brainwashing."

Noire sighed softly and looked at the Fearicite crystal in her hand. "There's barely enough power in this..." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "It'll have to do."

"Can I ask you something?" Neptune asked Noire, who gave her a confused expression. "Why did you trust me with Uni right away?"

Noire sighed heavily. "Would you believe it's because you're not human? Also, I told you that I would be back after dealing with the trash."

"You made it sound like you were planning on dying." Neptune pointed out and giggled as Noire gave her a glowering look. "Sorry, sorry, but that's what it sounded like.

"Tch, whatever." Noire had an annoyed expression on her face. "Are we done asking questions now?"

"Yeah," Neptune nodded at her. "Then let's go."

"Right."

Black and White lights engulfed the two of them.

(-)

Chrome grimaced as she used her razor wires to pull loose debris and objects towards her and to block attacks from Filyn. "Come on! Filyn! Don't you recognize me?!"

"You're my enemy." Filyn intoned as she stabbed at Chrome with her spear. "That's all I need to know."

Chrome twisted away from Filyn's attack. "This isn't right. Filyn! Come on! Don't you recognize your elder sister?"

Filyn gave her a dull look. "You are not my elder sister. I am one of Lastation's CPU Candidates."

"You don't even look like the others!" Chrome protested as she grabbed Filyn's spear and lifted it and her sister up before jerking it in one direction hard enough to get Filyn to let go of the spear. "Snap out of it!"

Filyn snapped her fingers and another spear formed in her hands. "Mistress Kei will reward me for ending you."

Chrome had a truly sad look on her face and she sighed while moving the spear in her hands into a different position so that the pointed end was facing Filyn. "Why? Why do I need to fight my little sister?"

Filyn said nothing as she rushed at Chrome, the two clashing their spears against each other.

It didn't take long for Chrome to realize that Filyn was not only reacting more fluidly than she had ever reacted before, but she was able to accurately and quickly judge distances and even graze her a couple of times. "How are you so accurate?"

Filyn didn't answer but Chrome swore she saw a glow come from Filyn's eye patch.

"Forgive me." Chrome said as she twisted out of the way of an attack from Filyn and reached out, grabbing Filyn's eye patch and pulling on it to remove it. Stepping back, Chrome's eyes widened as she saw Filyn's eye. "You... You have an eye now?"

"Yoohoo!" A screen popped up to the side. "Filyn, be a dear and hold off on attacking for a moment." A flamboyant voice popped up on a screen that was otherwise dark. Filyn, did just as asked and relaxed her stance. "Sorry that this is only audio, but seeing that poor girl's badly damaged eye made me feel so sorry for her that I had to give her an artificial cybernetic eye. It was pretty tricky, considering that I have to fill the hole up, keep her body from rejecting the cybernetic implant, connect nerves and make sure that the cybernetic eye is working properly before doing some superficial work so that her eye looks normal. It's not perfect, but she can see out of it at least."

"I... See..." Chrome said as she looked at Filyn. "I'm not sure if I should thank you or hate you, because it seems like you're in charge of her."

"Well, I do admit that I was the one who gave her little brain a good scrubbing." The voice told Chrome.

"I see..." Chrome mused as she narrowed her eyes in anger. "So when I get past Filyn, I'll hunt you down and beat you to death then."

"YEEP! Filyn! Protect me!"

"Yes, Master Anonydeath." Filyn intoned and jumped back at Chrome, who parried her attack.

"Anonydeath, huh?" Chrome mused. "I think Neptune mentioned you before. Something about a pervert."

"Why I NEVER!" Anonnydeath huffed over the audio equipment. "My pure maiden heart is not a pervert! Even if I do like to take secret pictures of Little Noire when she's taking a shower. She's so cute, but so cold!"

"No wonder Black Void doesn't like humans." Chrome muttered to herself as she blocked another stab at her body with the spear in her hands. "Dammit, Filyn! Come back to yourself!"

Filyn didn't reply as she continued to fight.

(-)

Near the bottom of the steps to the Basilicom, Linda, Gust and Warechu faced off against Rom, Ram and Peashy. "So..." Linda held her pipe in front of her. "What do we do here?"

"Try not to die seems good." Gust pointed out as she jumped away from a lightning attack from Ram. "Maybe spread out so we're not an easy target?"

"Sounds good!" Linda yelled as she ran to the right while Warechu ran to the left and Gust ran away from the three.

"Crap!" Linda yelled as Peashy jumped in front of her. "Um, are you still mad at me for not letting you smash up more of those bots at the police station?"

Peashy gave Linda a blank look before running at the green-haired girl, who quickly turned and ran to avoid her. "Pea will smash the bad girl!"

"But I'm not a bad girl!" Linda shot back before stopping and jumping up and over Peashy, who stumbled and fell on her face before sliding forward as Linda landed on the ground behind the CPU Candidate. "You should be careful, you don't want your Neptuna to worry about you."

Peashy got to her hands and knees and shook her head. "Who's that?" Peashy gave Linda a confused look. "Who's Neptuna?"

Linda had a look of utter disbelief and shock on her face. "...She's someone you love more than anyone else. She treats you like a daughter."

"Pea has no mother." Peashy declared and held up her hands in a boxing motion. "Pea will make you pay for lying to her."

"What happened to you?" Linda asked softly, glad that Neptune wasn't hearing this, since such words would utterly devastate her. "It doesn't matter, does it?" Linda shook off her hesitation and gave Peashy a determined look. "For the one who gave us all such hope, I'll find a way to break through what happened to you, Peashy."

(-)

"I don't suppose we can talk this out, Chu?" Warechu asked Ram, who had flames surrounding her while her hair fluttered in the wind and her eyes glowed softly. "Didn't think so."

He really didn't want to fight this girl. Not only was she cute, but he had come to like her as a person. She was a scared, timid girl who woke up some nights crying and needing Neptune to help her relax and calm down. She was a girl who had been abused and mistreated by someone she had trusted. She was a girl who was finally getting a nice life. "Dang it." Warechu sighed and wondered what he could do. Ducking under a gout of flame, he took to the sky with his wings and hoped that she couldn't fly.

When Ram merely smirked and snapped her fingers, causing the air around him to erupt, which sent him crashing to the ground, he got his answer. "Chuuu..." Warechu struggled to get up and when a shadow came over him, he looked up to see Ram standing above him. "...Please be nice?"

Ram's only answer was to lift her foot up and stomp her foot down towards his head.

(-)

As she ran, Gust ducked under a lightning blast and jumped up as the ground started to freeze over. "Please be nice, Rom!" Her only answer was several lightning bolts that nipped at her feet, forcing her to jump and bounce to avoid them.

"Be nice? You are causing problems in Lastation and need to be removed." Rom told her, the CPU Candidate's voice was eerily calm as ice formed around her. "The enemies of Lastation must be purged."

Gust gave her a sad look. "You've forgotten Gust? Even when Gust gave you a healing potion back in Lowee when White Void almost killed you?"

Rom tilted her head. "What are you talking..." Her pupils shrank as her mind flashed for a moment.

*Flash*

"Here. Is healing potion, might help her."

"Please... Save my sister."

"Gust thinks this is a bad idea."

*End Flash*

"What the?" Rom trembled as it felt like she was fading in and out of consciousness for some reason. "What's going on?"

Gust smiled at Rom. "Please! Remember! Remember your big sister Neptune!"

"Big... Sis..." Rom suddenly gripped her head with both hands while she shook her head from side to side and cried out in pain. "NNNNGH! It hurts!" Suddenly a storm of lightning and ice formed around her and Gust was forced to jump away while Rom screamed from mental pain.

As she floated down, the blue-haired bunny girl nodded. "Very well, Rom! Gust will help you!" Reaching into her inventory, Gust grabbed two random objects and started to merge them together. "Gust hopes her alchemy skills haven't gone bad yet."

The last thing she wanted to do was kill Rom by accident after all.

(-)

Uni walked slowly towards where Black Void and the purple-haired CPU had disappeared to. 'Well, more like purple with black and red stripes.' Uni thought to herself. Her energy rifle was held in front of her and every time she thought she saw a hint of red from Black Void's hair, she took a shot.

Uni could have rushed forward, but she wanted to make sure that she wasn't walking into some sort of trap. "Hmm..." She turned slightly and started to circle the corner, keeping herself far enough away that if one of those CPUs took a shot at her, she'd be able to dodge, hopefully.

When she saw a familiar transformation light, though one was white and she wasn't sure why, she jumped back and looked up as two streaks flew into the air and took a shot, missing both. "Dammit!" Turning around, she watched as both Black Void and Purple Heart landed near her. "So, you somehow could transform again?" Idly she noticed that Purple Heart's left braid was half red and her right braid was half black while Purple Heart's left eye was similar to a Void's eye, except that her power symbol was still... Upside down compared to a Void's power symbol. 'What is with that CPU?'

"I've had my power stolen from me before, Uni." Black Void said to Uni. "I've overcome it before." Her eyes were soft as Uni glared at her. "Purple Heart, you said that we have to knock her out?"

"Yes." Purple Heart nodded. "A strong shock to her system will cause the brainwashing to weaken and then we just have to do what we can to make her remember."

"And the others?" Black Void asked as she pointed her sword at her younger sister. It took every ounce of self-control to not tremble at doing the one thing she never wanted to do in her life. 'Big sister, was this how you felt on the day I killed you? Did you let me kill you because you couldn't bring yourself to fight me?'

"The same." Purple Heart told her. "I'll help you save your sister, you help me save mine."

Black Void smirked at her. "I might be a Void, but I pay my debts, Purple Heart."

"Are you done talking?" Uni asked as she made her energy rifle disappear and she pulled out two Uzis instead. "It's time to die."

Both CPUs took a stance in front of Uni as they prepared to fight her.

To be continued...

* * *

You guys REALLY thought I'd kill Noire off like that?

...Besides, how were we supposed to find out that she and Neptune share some tastes in porn? XD


	61. Vs Rom

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Surprise early Monday chapter for all of you guys! Because I love all of you!

I learned my lesson from Shadows. Each of the CPU Candidates gets their own chapter.

* * *

Chapter 53

Jumping away from Rom as the latter seemingly recovered from her mental damage and blasted at the bunny girl with a powerful ice spell, Gust landed near a building and turned before running up the wall to an outcropping one story off the ground.

"...How?" Rom asked as she gawked at Gust. "How did you do that?!"

Gust jerked a thumb to her ears and went back to mixing her stuff. "Gust is a bunny girl and can run very fast."

"...Including up walls?" Rom asked the blue-haired bunny girl, who nodded. "I see..." Clapping her hands, lightning started to arc and spin around her arms while traveling to her hands. "Then I'll have to hit a wide area, won't I?"

Gust stared, her pupils shrinking in shock at that as Rom snapped her hands out and bolts of electricity and shards of ice were blasted in a large, wide area in front of the CPU Candidate. Gust quickly jumped away and ran along the walls, moving up and down while she ran along the side of the building. "Dang it! Stop trying to..." Gust stopped speaking as she realized that she wasn't able to move anymore. Looking at her feet, she realized that she was on a rapidly expanding sheet of ice and sighed as she slid down to the ground.

Jumping off the wall, she landed on the street and gulped as the area around her was surrounded in ice. Turning around, she could only stare in horror as Rom walked forward, her eyes glowing while ice pillars erupted around her with each step forward. "Gust now understands why Neptune wanted to help you and Ram control your tempers."

"As one of Lastation's CPU Candidates, I'll put an end to you personally so Mistress Kei knows who's the best one." Rom stated while she raised her hand, which crackled with electrical power.

"...Who's your big sister?" Gust asked, hoping that there was still a bit of Rom in her mind still. 'Besides, I need more time.' She thought to herself as she continued to mix the contents in her inventory together.

"My big sister..?" Rom asked and grimaced as memories flashed through her mind of her lovingly calling someone "big sis", but what made it weird to her was that she couldn't see who that person was. "GRRR! WHO IS THAT?!"

"You don't remember?" Gust asked and sighed as her alchemist concoction was finished. Grabbing it, she looked at the glass beaker it was in. "Not a lot, hopefully will just induce sleep and not kill." Rushing forward, she jumped over an arc of lightning and landed on Rom's back.

"What are you dourk?!" Rom's eyes bugged out as the beaker was shoved into her mouth and some green liquid was poured down her throat. Letting out a gurgled scream, a pulse of power surged from Rom, sending Gust flying forcibly into the nearby frozen wall.

Gust grimaced and winced as she felt her ribs, spine and a few other bones protest from that. 'I am way too old for this shit.' She thought to herself as she slid down to the ground and looked at Rom, who was staggering from side to side. "Rom? Are you okay?" When Rom turned to her, Gust's pupils shrank as she saw nothing but raw hostility coming from the CPU Candidate. "Rom?"

"You..." Rom snarled as lightning swirled around the two of them. "You sat there and watched as Blanc beat me! You did nothing to stop her!"

Gust trembled and hoped that Rom didn't attack her. "That was months ago! White Void is dead!"

"LIAR!" Rom screamed at her. "I know I didn't kill her! She's still alive, isn't she?!" Holding out her open palm, Gust was preparing for the lightning around them to blast her. Instead, the lightning curved and bent towards Rom, blasting into her body from all angles. Gust was about to scream in despair when the lightning seemed to pool at Rom's fingertips, before streaking to the center of her palm and then lashing out at Gust, who was too injured to move. "Electrodestruction!"

As the blast hit Gust, she let out a terrible scream as the energy and light covered her body and lifted her off the ground.

Rom grinned while panting and chuckling. "Yes! That's right! Feel the pain! Feel everything I ever felt and die!" Her chuckling expanded into full blown laughter. "Yes! I know you hated me! I know you laughed about me behind my back! Blanc beat me and no one ever stopped her! You all deserve to die!"

"St...NO!" Gust cried out through her screams of pain. "PLEASE! AAAAAAHHH! ROM! PLEASE!? LET GUST TALK! PLEASE!?" She could feel the lightning tearing at her bones, her muscles and her organs, which felt like they were swelling up and were about to burst. "PLEASE!?" Gust was crying openly now. "ROM! GUST IS SORRY!"

Rom stared at Gust as she poured on the lightning. "And why would I..?" She asked herself and watched as Gust screamed and thrashed, jerking and spasming while something inside of her was screaming at her to stop. Sighing and ending the attack, Rom allowed the bunny girl to fall to the ground, groaning and twitching in pain while crackling from the attack. She waited while Gust panted and gasped for air. "...You wanted to talk, so talk."

"Be..." Gust whined and whimpered while grimacing with her eyes screwed shut. "Before... Can Gust... Ask..." She opened one eye up just a little bit and saw Rom's blurry image. "What... Was last thing... Rom remembers?"

Growling at Gust, Rom grimaced as her mind got hazy. "It was... It was..." She shuddered. "Why? Why does Blanc hate me so much?!"

Gust panted heavily. "Gust sees..." She rolled over and slowly pushed herself up. "Gust gave you a memory potion, was supposed to make you fall asleep."

"You tried to poison me?!" Rom screeched and the temperature dropped significantly. "How... WHY DO YOU HATE ME?!"

"Gust doesn't..." Gust tried to protest.

"YOU LIE!" Rom screamed at her while lightning crackled around her and smashed into the ground around her. "Only Compa liked me and Blanc hurt her! Ram gets hurt too because of Blanc! WHY DO YOU HATE ME?! NO ONE HELPS US! EVERYONE HATES US!"

"...You're right." Gust nodded as she got to her feet and staggered. "Gust did hate you..." She didn't flinch at the sheer rage and hate on Rom's face as lightning crackled around the enraged CPU Candidate. "But Gust doesn't hate you now."

"...Huh?" Rom stared at her in shock. "Liar! Even Blanc hates me and..!"

"Blanc's dead." Gust told her while she panted. "Please, you have to trust Gust." When Rom snarled, Gust sighed. "Rom, please..." Her voice was soft. "Please listen to Gu... No," she shook her head and took a deep breath. "I'll talk normally." She smiled at Rom's shocked face. "I could talk like this, but Gust, err, I've always spoken with my name like that, so, put up with Gust." She grimaced and tried again. "Gust..." She sighed and gave up. "Gust hated CPU White Void because White Void is the reason Gust lost her family and friends while Gust is forever stuck like this." She gestured to her body. "Gust is in her forties, Rom, and can never have children because I stopped aging when I was eight." She sighed and smiled at Rom. "But Gust hated you for no reason and I'm sorry." Tears started to well up in her eyes as she continued to speak. "Gust loves you and Ram."

"You lie!" Rom took a step back as Gust started to limp to her.

"No." Gust shook her head as her body crackled. "Neptune and Filyn showed Gust that she was wrong about you and Ram. You and Ram... Gust love you like you're her daughters."

Rom took another step back and trembled, but she wasn't moving away even as Gust got closer. "But... Why? Everyone hates me."

Gust shook her head. "No. Neptune loves you like a little sister. Gust loves you like a daughter. Chrome loves you too." She continued to limp and when she got close to Rom, she put her hands on Rom's cheeks and smiled as she looked up at the slightly taller and slightly bustier short-haired girl. "Gust can never have kids, so Gust sees Rom as a daughter..." She pulled Rom into a hug. "And Gust is so, so sorry for ever disliking such a good girl like you."

Rom was about to say something when something in her mind snapped. "G...Gust..?" She trembled and hugged Gust back. "What... What happened? My head hurts."

"Rom..." Gust smiled while tears came out of her eyes. "Welcome back..." Her smile and tears both increased as Rom hugged her back. There was fights and action going on around them, but the two just ignored it while they held each other.

"I'm sorry." Rom whispered and Gust shook her head.

"No, Rom did nothing wrong." Gust smiled and the two let go of the hug. "Gust is glad you remember now."

Rom gripped her head with her left hand. "Things are... Hazy. I don't remember everything, sorry."

Gust shook her head. "Gust will help you, okay?" Rom nodded and they turned to look around them. "We should find the others and help."

"Yes." Rom nodded.

To be continued...

* * *

No, these chapters aren't very long, but they took me days to write up fully!

Electrodestruction takes a bunch of small lightning bolts and turns it into a BIG lightning bolt.


	62. Vs Ram

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

No, I'm not going to post all the chapters at once. I did that in Shadows of the Heart and people complained about the pacing being too fast.

* * *

Chapter 54

Ram's foot slammed into the ground, kicking up some dirt and dust. Sighing, she moved her foot and pouted. "Aww, I wanted to squish the mousey!"

Warechu panted as he sat on the ground a few feet away, his face blue and eyes white and blank. "But I don't want to go squish, chu!" When Rom took a step towards him, he scurried backwards as fast as he could.

Which, sadly, wasn't fast enough as Ram suddenly burst forward and grinned at him while her hands glowed red with fire. Warechu stared at her in fear and braced himself for a burning sensation to engulf his being.

Which, thankfully for him, never happened as something grabbed him and pulled him out of the way just as the heat got close enough that his fur was starting to singe.

"BOO!" Ram complained as she looked at where Warechu was. "I just want to squish the mousey!"

"Ram!" A shocked voice caused Warechu to perk up and he looked at who was holding him. "How could you be so mean to Warechu?"

"Compa?!" Warechu gasped, shocked that Compa was there. "Why are you here?"

Compa gave him a smile and put him down before turning back to Ram and giving her a disappointed look. "I saw that something was going on here in the news and took a taxi cab over here."

"What about IF?" Warechu asked, wondering about the burned girl.

"Iffy's fine, she's with Chian at her diner right now since the doctors said she doesn't need to be in the hospital anymore until we get the money for the procedure." Compa wasn't sure why Chian was willing to help them, but she wasn't going to complain about it. Looking at Ram, who had fire swirling around her, Compa gulped. "Ram, be a good girl and stop this."

Ram narrowed her eyes at Compa. "...Who are you?"

"I'm Compa." Compa smiled at her. "Don't you remember?" Tears welled up in her eyes as she looked at the CPU Candidate. "I helped treat your owwies since the day you were born. You and Rom both. Whenever White Void got mean with you, I treated you and got you food and..."

"Who's White Void?" Ram asked, confusion in her voice. "There is only Black Void in Lastation and I am one of this nation's CPU Candidates."

Compa and Warechu both had confused looks on their faces. They looked at Ram in confusion, then at each other in confusion, and then back to Ram in confusion. "Um, Ram..." Warechu began. "You're the CPU Candidate of Lowee. You've only been in Lastation for a few days now."

"Liar!" Rom yelled and swung her arm to the side, which caused wind to pick up and start throwing dirt, dust and litter around while causing Warechu's tail and wings to flutter, along with Compa's hair and clothing, in the sudden wind. "I am CPU Candidate Ram! I need to prove that I'm a superior CPU Candidate than the others so Mistress Kei allows me to become the Void of Lastation and not them!"

"That's not how it works." Compa said softly as she gave Ram a sad look. "To become a Void you have to give up all the goodness inside of you and become an evil monster."

"Liar!" Ram yelled as fire swelled around her. "I'll show you! I'll show you that I'm better than my sisters! That I deserve to be the CPU of Lastation!"

Compa lowered her arms and lowered her head. "Do you not remember Nep Nep, Ram? Do you remember me?" When Ram just scoffed at her, she felt tears well up in her eyes. "Ram, I..." She looked up at the CPU Candidate, who was taken aback by the look of pure sorrow in her eyes. "You and Rom were so cute and adorable that I wanted to protect you. You didn't deserve what White Void did to you. But now you don't remember me? Why?"

Warechu gulped as Ram's response was to increase the flames around her. "Compa, I love you, but we really should try to protect ourselves from her."

"But she's not a bad girl." Compa protested and jumped away as Ram blasted at them with a gout of flames. "But I don't want to end up like Iffy either!"

"What should we do, Chu?" Warechu asked and ducked under a gout of flame.

"You can stand still so I can make a mousey go squish." Ram grinned like a savage at Warechu. "Don't worry, I heard that your head going splat only hurts for the first moment, then nothing more."

"Chuuuu..." Warechu trembled before turning and running while Ram chased after him. "I DON'T WANT TO GO SQUISH! I HAVE TO SNUGGLE COMPA MORE!"

Compa blushed and ran after Ram, "stop it, Ram! You can't make Warechu go squish! That's not right!"

"Why not?" Ram asked as she used a wind spell to allow her to jump ahead of Warechu, causing him to stop and fall on his butt while sliding forward. She grinned while walking forward and a dark shadow came over her face. "After all, rodents are icky, yucky, carry diseases and crawl around in poop!"

"I don't do that." Warechu protested. "And when I do get dirty I take time to get clean!" He scurried back to where Compa was and hid behind her legs. "Please, Ram? I'm not a bad rat." He stuck his head out from behind Compa's legs.

"It's not you." Ram said as she gave him a cool look while standing straight and tall, but to the side while she slowly raised her hand upwards. "Everything in this world must burn so that Mistress Kei can stand tall and proud. All will burn to dust."

Compa narrowed her eyes and had a rare frown on her face. "Ram... You're being a naughty girl. Stop saying those naughty things." Ram snorted while raising an eyebrow. "I see..." Compa sighed softly at that. "Warechu, we need to stop her." Warechu gave Compa a surprised squeak. "I don't want Ram to turn out like White Void. We need to stop her so she doesn't turn out bad like White Void was."

Warechu trembled as he looked at Ram. "But she... She wants to kill me! She wants to kill us!"

"...I'll let you take a shower with me." Compa said and Warechu stiffened as he heard that. "Including washing me A~L~L over." Her face was red, but she needed to have his help.

"CHU!" Warechu jumped out in front of Compa. "Leave her to me! I'll fight so that we can bring her back to normal!"

Compa smiled, even though her face was still red. "Good. Let's go, Warechu!" For some reason she felt an urge to call out attacks, but she shook it off. "Here we come, Ram!"

Ram yawned as she cast a wind spell, causing the wind to become extra strong. "You two can't get to me, why should I worry?" She smiled as both Compa and Warechu were slowly being pushed away while crossing their arms in front of them in a vain attempt to block the wind.

"Maybe you shouldn't blow Kei away then, chu..." Warechu said and Ram's eyes widened as she turned around to see if Kei was getting blown away while dialing back the wind spell.

"Huh!?" Ram looked around, frowning in confusion. "But Kei isn't..." Her eyes widened and she turned around in time to get a flying rodent's head to her stomach, causing her to double over.

"You're a naughty girl, Ram!" Compa said and gave the girl a light tap on the forehead.

Well, it was supposed to be light, but Compa found that she may have poked Ram a bit harder than she intended to as Ram flopped onto her back and rubbed her forehead, which was showing a bright red spot.

"Owwie!" Ram glared at Compa. "That was mean!" She had tears in her eyes as she rubbed her sore spot.

"Man, it's hard to know how much force to use!" Compa complained while looking at her hands. "I'm still not used to using these. I hurt myself washing off in the shower when I first got them on."

"Then let me melt them!" Ram yelled and let loose a gout of flame from her hands while Warechu and Compa jumped away and started to run in circles around her. "I have two hands, remember?!" She yelled and spread her arms out, causing the fire stream to follow both Compa and Warechu.

"Yes, but you have to stop and turn around, Chu!" Warechu pointed out and cried out as Ram turned to face him. "Compa! Help!" He screamed as the wind suddenly gusted upwards and forced him into the air and kept him from moving. "I DON'T WANNA BE A BURNED RAT!" He screamed as the fire got closer to him. "HELP! PLEASE!?" Tears fell out of his eyes.

"Got you!" Compa yelled as she tackled Ram to the ground, causing the fire to get put out and the wind spell to get canceled. The tackle sent the two tumbling to the ground with Compa ending up sitting on the ground with Ram laying in her lap, face down, both of them a bit woozy from the sudden movement. Seeing Ram on her lap, Compa grabbed Ram's arms and wrestled them behind her back and crossed them while holding her down on the doctor's lap. "You know what bad girls need, Ram?"

"What?" Ram asked while she struggled to get free and found it was hard, even as Compa moved her left hand off of Ram's hands and pushed down, making it hard and painful to move. "That hurts!"

"Not as much as you were trying to do to Warechu." Compa frowned as she looked at Ram's body suit. "Hmm... Ah!" She found that the body suit that Ram was wearing was actually a pair of pants and a shirt. Hooking her thumb under the waistband of Ram's pants, she slid it down Ram's legs, along with Ram's undies, causing the CPU Candidate to stiffen as her large and round, for her size and apparent age, butt was bared out into the open. "Bad little girls get spankings!"

"Huh?!" Ram's eyes widened and her face turned red as she felt Compa's mechanical hand slam down on her butt, causing it to flatten and jiggle from the strike. "OWW!"

"Bad girls!" Compa yelled while striking Ram's butt again. "Try to hurt their friends." Another strike to Ram's bare butt, "bad girls," another slap to Ram's butt, "want to burn everything down." Another slap happened and Ram cried out in pain as her butt continued to flatten and jiggle from each strike while turning red. "And bad girls act like bad CPUs!"

"Owwie! Owwie! Stop! Stop!" Ram cried out as her butt continued to get paddled by Compa's hand. "Please!? Owwies! I won't be a bad girl! I won't be a bad CPU!" She jerked her hips up and down in a way to try and get away from the descending hand, but found that it just pushed her hips into Compa's leg and did nothing to stop the spanking.

Warechu was blushing as he watched. Part of him wanted to look away, but another part of him wanted to see just what Compa was going to do. And since he started to watch, he couldn't stop himself even if he wanted to.

Besides, Ram's butt was too distracting when Compa's slapped it with the way it jiggled and how she was raising and lowering her hips.

Warechu shook his head before slapping his face a couple of times pretty hard.

"Are you okay, Warechu?" Compa asked as she rested her hand on Ram's butt. Warechu nodded while blushing. "What's wrong?"

"Chu... Don't get mad, but Ram's butt is... Kind of distracting when you're spanking it. It jiggles a lot." Warechu said while looking away. "I'm sorry, I just..."

Before Compa could respond, there was a sniffling sob. "C...Compa..." Ram's voice was meek and soft and Compa looked down at the girl. "I'm sorry. Please stop spanking me. I'm sorry."

"Ram!" Compa flipped Ram over and pulled her into a hug. "I'm sorry! I didn't want to spank you!"

Ram just cried as Compa hugged her and apologized for spanking her.

To be continued...

* * *

...I really do have a spanking fetish. XD


	63. Vs Peashy

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 55

Linda ran around the Basilicom's grounds as fast as she could. She jumped over a parked hover car and slid behind it before jumping on top of another one and sliding over the hood on her hips. "...You know, this would be cooler with explosions behind me."

When a car flew into the air and exploded, she sweat-dropped heavily. "Well, ask for something cool..." She trailed off as another car went flying into the air and exploded. "And get a terrifying little monster after you!" She yelled and ran over another car as more cars went flying into the air and exploding.

"Come on! Let Pea play with you!" Peashy yelled as she held onto Linda's pipe and used it to smash cars into the air, where they exploded.

"I just HAD to try and face the one with stupid strength, didn't I?" Linda groused as she got over the last car and kept running. "Crap! Think, Linda! Think! You have a little girl with stupid levels of strength, she's pretty stupid and..." Her eyes widened as a thought came to her. "She's still a little girl, right?" She slid to a stop as a car flipped over her and exploded as it crashed into the ground. Slowly turning her head, she shuddered as she saw Peashy running towards her with a big grin on her face.

"Yay! Now Pea can play smashy smashy with you!" Peashy's grin got wider as she ran forward at full speed.

"Wait!" Linda yelled while holding up a hand. "Wait! Please?" She sighed in relief as Peashy stopped. "Why do you want to play smashy smashy? That'll hurt!"

Peashy pouted. "But I like smashy smashy!" She swung the pipe back and forth a few times. "It's fun!"

Linda shuddered at the thought of getting hit by that pipe with the little CPU Candidate swinging it around. "But why me? If you hit me once with that, I'll go splat and then we can't play anymore." When Peashy pouted, Linda gulped softly. "Wouldn't it be more fun to not make me go splat?"

"But Pea wants to smashy smashy!" Peashy whined while swinging the pipe back and forth.

"Uh..." Linda gulped as Peashy got a gleam in her eyes. "Please don't?" She took a step back. "I still need to make sure that IF is okay."

Peashy blinked and tilted her head. "IF? Who's that?"

"She's kind of short, brown hair, tough girl, lots of scars on her face and body, skin that's four different colors, wears a large blue coat. You know, IF!" Linda yelled at Peashy.

"I...F..?" Peashy blinked a few times before her eyes widened as a flash of memory entered her mind.

*Flash*

"Huh?" Peashy looked at a girl who had yellow, red and blue streaks on her darkened skin. "Who are you?"

The girl, who had weird disfigures on her face, now that Peashy took another look, smiled at her. "I'm IF. You must be Leanbox's CPU Candidate, huh?"

"That's right!" Rom smiled and put her hands on Peashy's shoulders. "She's Peashy and big sis beat Green Void, so now she's with us."

"That's neat!" A girl with short, strawberry-blonde hair and two hooks for hands, smiled at Peashy. "I'm Compa. This is IF, but I call her Iffy." She gestured to a mouse. "This is Warechu," then to a blue-haired bunny girl, "that's Gust, and this," she motioned to the tallest girl, "is Linda. We're all good friends."

"Wow." Peashy smiled at them and looked at IF. "...You got weird skin."

Everyone winced as they heard her say that. While it was true, there was no need to be so blunt about it.

Peashy spoke up again before anyone could say anything. "It's so cool! I want to have skin with lots of colors on it too!"

*End flash*

"AH!" Peashy yelled, her pupils shrinking as she shook her head. "No! I don't know anyone named IF! I don't know Leanbox! I'm from Lastation!" She gripped her head as memories of swimming in the ocean flooded her mind. "NO! I never went swimming!"

Linda frowned at that. "No! You did! I have..." Whatever more she was going to say was cut off as several progbots landed near them, circling them.

**_"Eliminate!"_** The progbots pointed their cannon arms at both Linda and Peashy.

"H...Huh?" Peashy looked at the progbots with some fear. "But I'm Lastation's CPU Candidate. Don't shoot me!"

**_"Irrelevant."_**

Linda's eyes lit up suddenly. "Hey! Peashy! If you want to play Smashy Smashy..." She pointed at the Progbots while Peashy's eyes lit up while looking around. "They want to play."

"Really?" Peashy gasped happily. "YAY!" She threw the metal pipe in her hands into the air and ran towards one progbot, avoiding cannon shots while Linda ran away from the ones who shot at her, before grabbing it and slamming it onto its back. "Now! Smashy smashy!" She yelled and jumped on its chest before punching the head as hard as she could, shattering it into pieces. "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! YOU LOSE!"

She jumped off the Progbot as several blasts ripped right through where she was and landed on one before bouncing off of it to the closest one while blasts ripped through the progbot she was on, laughing the whole time. "You can't catch me! Neener neener neener!"

**_"Halt in the name of the law."_**

"You want to shoot me!" Peashy countered as she jumped on the progbot that spoke and punched its head clean off of its shoulders. "Bad robot!"

Not far away, Linda was on her butt as she got surrounded by four progbots. "Um... Can you not kill me?"

_**"Enemies of the state must die."**_

"Well, shit, how..." Before Linda could contemplate anything more, there was a swinging sound through the air and all four progbots suddenly had their heads removed from their heads and fell down in a heap. "What the hell?"

"My apologies, but I do not think you wanted to fight them without a weapon." A male voice said behind Linda. The green-haired girl jerked and turned around to see Steamax standing with his back to her and a large ninja star in his outstretched hand while he looked over his shoulder. "You are an associate of the CPUs that came to Lastation, correct?" Linda nodded, a look of awe and fear on her face as she looked at him. "Then I shall assist you. After all, if Lady Noire is working with those other CPUs, then you are an ally."

"How do you figure that I'm an ally?" Linda asked, though she wasn't going to turn away someone who was strong enough to do that to the robots that attacked them.

"I don't, as far as I know, you could be an enemy, but if that was the case, why would you be lined up to be executed like Lady Noire was?"

"Fair point." Linda muttered and jerked as an explosion happened and Peashy landed not far away. "Um..."

"All the badbots are broken!" Peashy yelled happily as she grinned at Linda. "Now Pea wants to smashy smashy you!"

"Uh..." Linda gulped and blinked as something was given to her. Looking down, she saw a pipe in her hands. "Wait, what?"

"I caught it as I destroyed the progbots around us." Steamax told her as he slid to the side of Linda and took a stance. "I suggest that you go for body blows with her."

"The only place to hit would be her back or stomach." Linda commented and sighed. "I don't feel good with the idea of hitting her."

"Even if she's as young as she looks, she's still a CPU Candidate." Steamax commented to Linda. "She's far more resilient and durable than a regular human, even if she looks like she should be just entering school."

"...It's easy to forget that she's not human." Linda said softly. "Okay, let's go." She really didn't want to hurt Peashy, because of what it would do to Rom, Ram and Neptune, but she didn't want to die and leave IF, Compa and the others alone.

"Can we play now?" Peashy asked and ran forward at Linda, only to have the other girl jump to the side while Steamax thrust his leg out at Peashy, who took the hit and went flying towards a tree. "Owwies!" She yelled as she hit the tree and slid down. "That hurt!"

"I see what you mean." Linda muttered as she realized that such a strike would have taken her out. "Any suggestions?"

"If we beat her enough, I can put her to sleep. CPU Candidate bodies are similar enough to humans that I know various techniques to make her sleep. After that we can figure out how to undo what happened to her." Steamax said and jumped away as Peashy jumped at him like a rocket. "She is fast."

"Hey! Brat!" Linda yelled and Peashy looked at her as she swung her pipe at Peashy, who grabbed it and stopped the swing cold. "Um... Mercy?" She gulped when Peashy grinned at her. "Smashy smashy?"

"YAY!" Peashy yelled and lifted Linda up and over her head and slammed her on the ground, or would have had Linda not let go of the pipe when she was at the highest point and realized what was going to happen. "Aww!" Peashy pouted as Linda landed behind her. Turning, she found Linda's foot in her face, sending her tumbling away. "Oww!"

Linda panted, grateful for all the times she had to fight various monsters in the Lowee forests while she ran from the city to live away from White Void. Sure, the cuts, bruises and small scars that she had endured in her life sucked, but right now, she wasn't complaining about the fact that going through such things had toughened her up and taught her how to move and fight to survive.

"GRRR!" Peashy growled as she got up and glared at Linda. "Pea will smash you really bad now!"

"Distract her." Steamax told Linda, who nodded and ran in a circle around Peashy, who watched her and ran at her.

"Pea MISSILE BOMB!" Peashy yelled and launched herself at Linda so fast and hard that when she drove her head into Linda's stomach, somehow there was an explosion of energy that erupted into a dome of fire that surrounded the two of them while Peashy walked out of the explosion unscathed.

At least that's what it felt like to Linda as she was on her back, her stomach screaming in pain while the little girl grinned at her. Opening her eyes, she stared in fear as Peashy held a hand up. "Wa..."

"Smashy smashy time!" Peashy declared and punched down at Linda's head.

Linda stared in absolute horror as the fist got closer and closer. Just as it touched her nose, it stopped and Peashy went slack on her.

"Sorry for taking so long." Steamax said as he held his hand in a position that people sometimes referred to as a knife-chop position. "She was smaller, so making sure that I hit the right nerve cluster with enough force to knock her out was tricky."

Linda nodded and flopped her head back. "Just tie her up so she doesn't try doing that again."

"Of course." Steamax said as he lifted Peashy off of Linda and tied her up. "Are you okay though?"

"I will be when my stomach stops hurting, I don't feel like I'm going to die because I'm worried about my head getting split open and I know that IF's okay." Linda's eyes widened and she blushed at admitting that. "I..."

"I will not pry into your personal life." Steamax told her. "If you worry about this IF person, I'm sure that he or she knows that you care about them and are very lucky."

Linda smiled softly at that. "Thanks."

To be continued...

* * *

Smashy Smashy time is a terrifying concept.


	64. Vs Filyn

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

I think some of you forgot about Filyn. XD

* * *

Chapter 56

"Multi... STRIKE!" Filyn yelled as she slammed her spear into the ground, causing a black circle to form around her as several smaller black circles appeared around Chrome's feet as multiple spears erupted out of the ground to skewer her. Filyn frowned as all of them missed as Chrome jumped up and back to avoid her attacks. "Then..."

Chrome's eyes widened and she twisted in mid-air as several spears struck out at her in mid-air without warning.

"No fair!" Filyn protested. "How can you do that?!"

Chrome raised an eyebrow and smirked at Filyn. "I'll only tell that to my sister." She fought the urge to chuckle as Filyn gave her the most adorable pout ever. "Can we stop for a second?" Filyn tilted her head and gave Chrome a confused look while Chrome held up the eye patch she had swiped from Filyn. "No offense, Filyn, but you look better with the eye patch on."

Filyn scoffed at her. "Well, what do you want from me? You stole it."

"I'll give it back if you want it." Chrome said softly. "No tricks, nothing, I won't attack or fight you if you let me put it back on you."

Filyn narrowed her eyes at Chrome. "And why would I...give...you..?" She trailed off as a memory flashed through her mind at that moment.

*Flash*

"I don't like this." Filyn muttered as someone sat behind her while they sat in front of a mirror. "Why do I need to wear an eye patch?"

"Because people look at you with fear, Filyn." A soft, gentle voice, told her while tying something behind her head. "They'll still look at you, but it won't be because they're afraid or disgusted by you. I'll show you how to tie this yourself so you can fix it if it falls off, okay?"

"Hmph! I guess so." Filyn groused before stiffening as she felt a pair of arms wrap around her from behind.

"You can always rely on me and the others if you're worried, Filyn. If we can help, I promise you, we will."

Filyn sniffled and looked down. "But why can't I remember anything?"

The person hugging her was silent for some time. "It doesn't matter, does it?" She was asked and Filyn looked at herself in wonderment. "It doesn't matter who you were before you lost your memories. Just make new ones and if the old ones ever return, you can figure out what that means for your life going forward, right?"

Filyn smiled at that. "Yeah."

*End flashback*

"Nnngh! What the heck?" Filyn asked and put her hand over her cybernetic eye. "Nnngh! What is this? Who was putting an eye patch on my eye?"

Chrome looked at her softly. "That was me. You had just woken up from a near-sixty year coma with no memories and I gave you an eye patch to cover your eye up so other people didn't freak out about your missing eye." She took a step back as Filyn growled and shook her head. "Filyn, please! Remember me! I'm Chrome! CPU of Eden! You're my little sister, my CPU Candidate."

"I'm the CPU Candidate of Lastation!" Filyn swung her arm to the side while pointing her spear at Chrome. "I won't be tricked by you!"

"...How did you lose your eye then?" Chrome asked Filyn, who tilted her head in confusion. "You have a cybernetic replacement eye, how did you lose it to begin with?"

"I..." Filyn put her hand on the skin around her eye and felt the scars and ridges there. "I..." She stopped and paled as memories of a CPU with glowing red eyes and long, dark blue hair, simply smiled, reached in and stabbed her eye out with her hand. "What... That... Who..?"

"Iris Void." Chrome told her. "She stole Eden from us, turned it into a swamp of a wasteland and killed all of our people, Filyn!" Several razor wires formed around Chrome, seemingly moving on their own. "You must remember who you are!"

Filyn growled at Chrome and took a stance with her spear. "Shut up, Chromey! I'm Lastation's CPU Candidate!" Both Chrome and Filyn's eyes widened at the pet name.

"I see..." Chrome smiled as she recalled her wires so that only a few were visible. "You're still in there, huh? Then allow your big sister the honor of pulling you out of whatever that crazy guy in the armor did to you."

"Master Anonydeath isn't crazy!" Filyn yelled as her cybernetic eye glowed and she rushed at Chrome, who snapped her wrist backwards and felt her razor wires wrap around something before yanking towards her. "I'll show you!" She stabbed forward, only to find her spear stopped by a metal garbage can of all things. "What the hell?"

"I've long since mastered these wires, Filyn, and using my environment to my advantage is a key part of that." Chrome told her as she held the garbage can lid in her left hand. "If you have a spear, I'll have to use a shield."

"A garbage can lid is a shield?" Filyn said flatly. "Since when?"

Chrome shrugged at Filyn. "If you beat me, I'll tell you." It was kind of amusing when she thought about how she found out about it too.

*Flash*

"Hey, Chrome..." Neptune said while they were on the airship while flying towards Lastation. "Did you know?"

"Know what?" Chrome asked while the two sat in the living room by themselves while everyone else slept.

"That Demons in the Netherworld use garbage can lids as shields?" Neptune giggled at Chrome's look disbelief. "I went to the Netherworld once, helped train some Overlords to fight some sort of God of Destruction. I couldn't get close because it corrupted all that was Divine, but since Demon Overlords aren't Divine, it was okay."

"...Sounds interesting." Chrome muttered and wondered if it was possible to use such a thing.

*End Flash*

Filyn scoffed and narrowed her eyes at Chrome. "I'll beat you and force you to tell me. No, wait, I'll just beat you and then move on to that worthless purple CPU."

Chrome narrowed her eyes and sighed heavily. "Very well, I have no choice then..." She closed her eyes as energy surrounded her and Filyn. "Then I'll have to end this now so that you don't get hurt."

Filyn looked around weirdly. "...Why does it feel like some sort of epic background music just came on?" She watched as Chrome stepped forward while what looked like rocks, tress and even telephone poles popped out of the ground around the elder looking woman. "What's going on?"

"EXE attack..." Chrome snapped her left hand out and wiggled her fingers as wires started to unwind and unravel, filling the air in a loose pattern. "Judgement strike!" She swung her left arm forward, followed by her right arm and Filyn could only watch in horror as everything that popped up around her was suddenly wrapped up in wires. "This is the end... GOODNIGHT!" Flexing her fingers, Chrome crossed her arms and pulled hard while letting out a scream as the constructs she had created were cut into pieces and were then launched at Filyn.

Tears fell down Chrome's face as the constructs crashed into Filyn, burying the redheaded girl under them. "It's not over yet." With a flick of her wrists, the wires stabbed into the pile of rubble and Chrome sent a pulse of energy into the pile, causing it to explode.

When the attack ended, the constructs faded and Chrome looked at her sister, laying face down in a small crater, while smoke came off of her body. "Filyn..." She said softly and walked towards the redhead. "Are you okay?"

"That hurt, you know?" Filyn raised her head up and gave Chrome a glowering look. "Chromey, you didn't have to use your EXE attack on me!" She pushed herself up slowly and got into a sitting position. "Even if it worked." She blushed when Chrome raised an eyebrow. "Well, I kind of remember everything now. And I hurt everywhere."

The next thing she knew, Chrome had pulled her into a hug and pressed her head against her big sister's breasts. "I'm glad you're back."

Filyn smiled and closed her eyes, snuggling into Chrome's breasts. "Mmmm... I guess I can forgive you for the pain then."

Chrome smiled as the two of them laughed softly while hugging each other.

To be continued...

* * *

If you're wondering about the music Filyn heard, it was Neptunia VII OST 6 "Drive Away", AKA the music that plays when you do an EXE attack in VII/R.


	65. Vs Uni

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 57

"Uni..." Black Void looked at her sister, a hurt expression on her face. "I..."

"Enemies of the state will die." Uni declared and Black Void felt her eyebrow twitch in anger. "And you two are enemies of Lastation."

"It's no use, Noire." Purple Heart told her and held her sword in front of her defensively. "Speaking from personal experience, anyone who's been brainwashed won't act like themselves or be friendly to the people they care about." Memories of when she had to fight against Yellow Heart and when she nearly choked Nepgear to death flashed through her mind but she violently pushed them down. 'Stupid Neptune, both of those times were your fault. If you had just been a better CPU than P-Ko wouldn't have become Yellow Heart and you wouldn't have tried to kill Nepgear.'

"...Can we fight her without killing her?" Black Void asked and Purple Heart nodded at her.

"Yes."

"I'm tired of hearing you talk. Die." Uni said as she pulled the triggers on her Uzis, forcing the CPUs to dodge to the side to avoid the hail of bullets from her guns. Looking from side to side, Uni jumped back and dismissed her guns to call out her energy rifle. Taking aim at Black Void, she was about to pull the trigger when an energy sword shot through her sword. Turning, she looked at Purple Heart and then back at Black Void. "I see, trying to take one of you down at a time will only leave me open, huh?" Uni asked rhetorically as she snapped her fingers and several floating drones with small Gatling guns formed around her while she recalled her Uzis.

"This stinks." Purple Heart muttered. "I never did well in bullet hell games."

Uni snapped her head up at Purple Heart and jerked it slightly as the drones started to spin their barrels and fired at the CPU while Uni turned and fired at Black Void with her Uzis.

Landing not far from Uni and sliding back, Black Void held up her hand and a barrier formed in front of her, causing the bullets to bounce off of them. 'Either she doesn't have shield-piercing shots or those guns aren't loaded with anything special.' Black Void thought to herself.

When Uni made the Uzis disappear and replaced them with a handgun, she wondered what her little sister was up to. Her thoughts cleared up instantly as explosions rocked her shield, forcing her to slide back from the shots. "Alright, let's end this." Uni said to Black Void, who could only look out through the smoke at her sister in dismay.

(-)

Not far away, Purple Heart was jumping side to side and flying up to avoid the shots from the drones. 'Let's see, fighting them one on one will be too slow...' And spamming her swords might work, but she needed to stand still to direct them and she had no idea what kind of properties they had. "Hmm, I wonder just how durable your armor is." She muttered as she dodged and bobbed between shots before crying out as one got behind her and shot her in the back, causing her wings to short out and send her to the ground below. "Oww..." She muttered as she crashed, face-first, onto the ground. "And no tsundere landing pad this time." Purple Heart muttered as she back-flipped away from her landing spot to avoid the bullets. "I have an idea." She grinned as she landed on her feet and slid backwards.

With a push off from a sigil under her feet, she rushed forward and, with a strong leap, grabbed the first drone she came across and with an impressive display of agility and acrobatics, slid under the drone, up behind it and landed on the top of it, causing it wobble and slowly sink as the others trained their guns on it. "I'm going to use the P-Ko method of making stuff work now." Purple Heart said and punched the backside of the drone, embedding her fist into it and smirking as she found what she was looking for. "Thought so..." Flipping off of the drone, she pulled it with her and adjusted it while she landed on the ground before pointing it at the other drones and pulling the interior trigger and firing a hail of bullets at the drones, tearing through several of them before she had to bolt away to avoid return fire.

Still, with a combination of her experience, speed, agility and the fact that she only ran out of bullets when the last of the drones fell, Purple Heart managed to get out with only a few cuts and scrapes from some bullets clipping her arms, legs and sides. "I hate bullet enemies." She muttered and smashed the drone she was using with her bare hands, causing it to fall to the ground in a crumpled heap. "Now then..." She turned to see how Black Void was doing and frowned in confusion as she saw Black Void pinned down as Uni fired at her. When the bullets exploded against Black Void's shield, she understood a little bit, but there was something that was bothering her.

When Noire didn't move, even as the explosions rocked her barrier, Purple Heart instantly understood. "I see..."

(-)

"Dammit!" Black Void cursed softly as another explosion rocked her shield, which was starting to crack. "UNI! Please!"

"Please die?" Uni asked, her voice cold, heartless and completely unlike what she was used to hearing coming out of her little sister's mouth. "Yes, I think you should. After all, isn't this more fun? After all those times you stabbed me in the stomach over and over again, you deserve this."

Black Void had a confused, angry expression on her face. "What are you talking about?" She gasped as her shield shattered, revealing Uni, who was pointing her gun at Noire.

"All those times you stabbed me, over and over, while laughing at me." Uni pulled the trigger, only to have a click happen. "Out of bullets, huh?" She dismissed the gun and recalled her Uzis. "That's fine, I have more here and, GAH!" She screamed as she was grabbed from behind and thrown several feet away, landing on her back. "What the heck?"

Standing where she had thrown Uni, Purple Heart wasn't even looking at her, instead, she was looking at Black Void. "Noire..."

"What?" Black Void asked as Purple Heart walked towards her and did something that had both of the Lastation siblings staring in shock.

She slapped Black Void so hard that the other CPU was sitting on her ass, rubbing her sore cheek. "What the hell?!" Black Void yelled at Purple Heart. "That fucking hurt!"

"Don't you "what the hell" to me!" Purple Heart yelled while pointing at Black Void. "Didn't you tell me that even good CPUs need to act like Voids sometimes?"

Black Void growled and got to her feet, glaring at Purple Heart. "You want me to kill my little sister?!"

Another slap, though this one was much softer, hit Black Void's other cheek. "Not at all." Purple Heart said softly. "While you're hestitating and holding back, your sister, your real sister, the one that loves you, is inside Uni, crying and begging for her big sister to come save her." Black Void jerked, her eyes wide as she turned to look at Uni, who was getting to her feet. "Take it from me, Noire, when I was in her position, I was begging for my little sister to save me."

"But I..." Black Void blinked as she felt a hand squeeze her shoulder. "What?"

Purple Heart smiled at her. "We all need a helping hand sometimes, Noire. I promise you... We'll save your sister. We'll save Uni."

"...Thank you." For the first time in a long time, Black Void did something she never thought she could do, she gave someone a smile of gratitude. "But I don't know how to..."

"Do you have stun settings in your guns?" Purple Heart asked, causing Black Void to jerk. "Well?"

Black Void's face turned red and she looked away. "I... Um... Maybe? I dunno." She felt her blush increase. "I never needed it before."

"Well?" Purple Heart asked as Black Void pulled up a screen.

"Give me some time to figure it out." Black Void told her. "I need to look at my status skills and figure it out."

Purple Heart chuckled and turned back to Uni. "I'll keep her distracted then." Calling up her katana, she rushed the CPU Candidate, who dismissed her guns and called up a pair of gauntlets over her arms and hands to let her block and parry Purple Heart's attacks. "Oh? You're not helpless at close range?"

"Of course I'm not." Uni shot back. "I'm no idiot. Overspecialization only leads to problems when you're out of your element."

As Purple Heart fought to keep Uni distracted, Black Void went over her status and attacks that she had unlocked. "Let's see... Ionic Blaster? Pulsar Blaster? Might be useful in the future." She muttered as she clicked on both of them to turn them on. "Lesse... Ah! Stun blaster."

Black Void grimaced as she saw it would take nearly twenty seconds to set up fully. "Dammit... Hurry up." Even if it was merely twenty seconds, it felt forever.

While Black Void was waiting for her skills to be fully loaded, Purple Heart was trading blows with Uni and found that the CPU Candidate was quite adept at martial arts as she had not only disarmed Purple Heart, but was trading unarmed blows with the CPU. "You're not bad."

"I could say the same to you." Uni said as she ducked under a kick. "But you seem rusty and you hesitate."

"I admit that it's been awhile since I fought unarmed." Purple Heart admitted as she grabbed Uni's punch and redirected the attack so she could push the black-haired girl away before kicking her in the butt. "I prefer fighting with swords myself." Or cypress sticks, but that only happened when her level dropped to one because having an over-leveled character at the start of the game was never fun.

Purple Heart watched as Uni touched down and then turned back to rush at her and the Planeptune CPU admitted that she really needed to brush up on her unarmed combat skills. 'Though my Noire would probably bop me on the head if I started fighting like that again.' Being beaten in combat because your opponent was using hand to hand while you had a melee weapon was one thing...

...But Purple Heart had used those moments when she was grappling with Black Heart, White Heart and Green Heart in the past to cop a quick feel of the three of them.

Blanc and Noire obviously had objected pretty hard and Vert, of course, merely encouraged her to keep going.

Blocking a knee strike to her midsection, Purple Heart grimaced as she quickly threw her right arm up to block a hay-maker that Uni launched at her head. "Hey, Uni, can I ask you a question?"

"What?" Uni asked as she hopped back out of range from Purple Heart's counter-attack.

"Is this what you really want?" Purple Heart asked her. "Do you really want to kill your older sister?"

Uni scoffed at her. "Older sister? I'm to become a Void! We don't have older sisters!"

"You're wrong." Purple Heart countered as they slowly circled each other. "I've met three other Voids before Black Void, all three of them were horrible beings that tortured their people, tormented their little sisters and caused untold destruction." It still pained her that she hadn't been able to arrive in time to save Plutia's little sister and seeing how she had been pinned against the wall like that only made her wonder what kind of person Iris Sister really was and how she wished, above all else, that she could meet her and apologize for not being there to give her comfort like she did for Rom, Ram and Peashy. "Black Void, however, cares for you, she takes care of her nation and..." She trailed off as Uni laughed. "What?"

"Cares for me? HA!" Uni held her arms down. "She only cares about herself, order and power." She snarled at Purple Heart. "Black Void is just the current CPU, she was never my sister and as soon as I eliminate her, I'll prove that I'm a superior product."

Even if it wasn't her sister, such words actually made Purple Heart hurt and she even felt her eyes start to burn and water at the way Uni was saying such things about Noire. "You're wrong! Uni, I know that you don't mean that!"

"And what do you know about me?" Uni asked and Purple Heart flinched, realizing that Uni was right. As much as this Uni looked like the one she knew, she also knew that she knew nothing about this Uni. "I thought so. It's time to end you and then I'll get praised for what I did."

"...Really?" Purple Heart asked softly, her eyes showing disbelief. "That's what the brainwashing did to you?" While the Uni she knew wanted praise from Noire, she did it because she genuinely loved and respected Noire and Noire was awkward with her praise towards others, not because Uni was a loyal dog.

"UNI!" Black Void called out and Uni turned to see the Void floating towards her. "...I truly am sorry."

Before Uni could ask what was going on, Black Void's hip blasters fired an arcing bolt of energy that hit Uni and caused her body to spasm and jerk as her muscles locked up and she found herself falling to her knees and forward.

Before she even fell more than a few inches, Black Void was in front of her, catching her as Uni's face fell onto her chest. "I'm sorry, Uni." She whispered softly as she knelt down and held her sister tightly. "I'm so, so sorry that I had to be so distant to you." Looking up as she sensed Purple Heart walking towards her, she gave the other CPU a withering look. "What?"

Purple Heart gave her a soft smile. "Nothing. Nothing at all."

Even if this Noire was a Void, even if she was a Tsundere that made every Tsundere she knew look expressive and emotional, she was still a Noire that deeply cared for her little sister and her people.

And that, in Purple Heart's mind, was the way the world should be.

"Will she come out of this back to normal?" Black Void asked as she stood up and lifted Uni in a bridal style.

"Potentially." Purple Heart told her. "She might need a bop on the head, but she should come back to normal. If that doesn't work..." She shrugged, "just give her a hug and tell her that you love her."

"...I can do that." Black Void nodded. "The stun effect should wear off soon, I hope..."

"...Do you love me, Noire?" Uni asked softly as she opened an eye. "...Do you?"

Black Void gave her a look and sighed, nodding. "If I said no, I would be lying. Are you... Back to normal?"

Uni's eyes burned, tears filling them up. "They did so many horrible things to me, Noire. I was so scared."

Black Void pushed down the surge of anger she felt and hugged Uni tightly. "Don't worry, I'll make them pay, I'm just glad you're okay now."

Purple Heart just hoped the others were doing well with their efforts against the other CPU Candidates.

To be continued...

* * *

...I shouldn't have listened to Soriano Days in English while I wrote this.

"Can you hear my voice calling out? Through the darkness trying to shout? Trapped within the void of the night, I call forth..."

Yeah, fits what was happening with Uni, huh?


	66. Vs Brave

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

...Well, this chapter is much longer than I remember it being when I wrote it.

* * *

Chapter 58

Kei stared at the viewing screens that she and Gernia G. were looking at, showing the outcomes of the fights each of the CPU Candidates had with those interlopers. "How? What?"

"Impressive," Gernia G. said while looking impressed. "To think that they were beaten so easily." She shook her head, sighing. "I knew that I should have put a cerebral cortex implant chip into each of them, we could have shut off their conscious minds and made them fight without thinking."

Kei gave her a dirty look. "Didn't you also say that it would limit their effectiveness in combat by almost half?"

"Did I say that?" Gernia G. blinked before thinking about it. "Well, it wouldn't surprise me if it was that much, best case scenario would be by thirty-five percent or so."

"That's why I didn't do it." Kei muttered and slammed her hands on the console in frustration. "How? HOW?!"

"I did warn you, Kei." Anonydeath's voice popped up as his face appeared on the screen. "That those cuties needed more time for the brainwashing to fully settle in. A week at least, a month would have been best, but you went and pushed them into eliminating those that they cared about super fast." He shook his head. "I wouldn't be surprised that even if you had succeeded and killed Noire with your scheme that her little sister wouldn't have broken free of her brainwashing on her own." For some reason, Kei just imagined him giving her a smug look, which was hard to do considering his helmet and visor didn't let her see anything about his face.

"So, what do we do now?" Gernia G. asked Kei.

"...Singe, are you there?" Kei asked as she pushed a button on the console. When Singe's face appeared on screen, he gave her a nod. "Are you near?"

"Not quite. But I can be there in three minutes."

"You have two."

(-)

Meanwhile...

"Big sis!" Purple Heart turned and saw Ram hobbling her way over to Purple Heart while waving her hands. "I'm okay!"

"Ram!" Purple Heart smiled and hovered over to the girl, hugging her. "I'm glad." She looked and saw Compa and Warechu coming from behind. "Compa? I'm surprised you're here."

The blonde smiled at her. "Someone has to make sure that Nep Nep has a happy home to come back to, right? Besides, I wanted to help."

Purple Heart nodded and moved her hand down to lift Ram up, only to get a hiss from the girl as her hand went under Ram's rear end. "Ram, what's wrong?" She asked in concern.

"..Compa gave me a spanking." Ram whimpered as she remembered the pain and humiliation she suffered from Compa. "It stopped me, but my butt's really sore right now."

Behind Purple Heart, Black Void actually laughed while she walked up to them while carrying Uni. "Didn't you tell me that the way to break them out of their mind control was to give them a big spanking?"

Purple Heart sweat-dropped and looked back at Black Void, giving her an annoyed look. "I didn't mean give them a literal spanking." At least it worked, that much was certain.

After fussing over Ram and making sure that she was otherwise okay, Purple Heart was practically tackled by Rom, who came running out of nowhere to give her a flying tackle-hug. "Ooof!" Purple Heart gasped as Rom's knees accidentally went digging into her stomach, knocking the wind out of her temporarily.

"Big sis!" Rom looked at Purple Heart with tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I thought..."

Purple Heart smiled and simply hugged Rom to her chest. "It's okay, Rom. I know you didn't mean anything by it." She looked at Gust, who looked a bit extra crispy, but otherwise okay. "Gust, you saved Rom?" The bunny girl nodded and Purple Heart smiled at her. "Thank you. You look injured."

"A little extra crispy, but Gust is otherwise okay." She said, wincing at the cramps in her legs, back and arms. "...Gust needs a massage though. Can you teleport Gust back to Leanbox for one?"

"Sorry, that's not in my skill set." Purple Heart told her. "If you're hurting, you can just stay back."

"Good, because Gust wants to take a nap." She stretched her arms over her head and winced as her back popped. 'Yep, getting too old for this shit.'

"Are we having fun?" A new voice spoke up as Chrome and Filyn walked up to the group. "I take it that everything's been settled?" Chrome asked as she saw everyone was either relaxed or just not hostile. "...What's wrong with that one?" She asked while looking at Uni.

"...I blasted her with a stun shot." Black Void told her. "It should wear off, but..." She sighed. "Where's Steamax? I know I programmed him with information on how to unlock muscle cramps."

"I'm right here, Lady Noire." Steamax said as he dropped down from the sky behind Black Void holding Linda in one hand and Peashy in the other. "Sadly, this CPU Candidate is still..."

"Grr!" Peashy growled as she tried to struggle out of Steamax's grip while tied up. "Pea will smash all you bad people!" She hated how she couldn't get out of the bindings she was in, despite only being out cold for a minute at most.

Looking at Peashy sadly, Purple Heart put Rom down and then looked at Compa. "Compa, do you have any needles on you?" Compa gave her a confused look but nodded. "Could you show them to Peashy?" She looked at Steamax. "You can put her down right here." She gestured in front of her. "But Uni and Gust need some attention, if you know how to undo cramps in their bodies?"

"I can do that." Steamax said as he put Peashy down in front of Purple Heart and walked over to Black Void while taking Uni from her to help the girl get feeling in her body again.

Sitting on the ground, Peashy glared at Purple Heart. "Pea will smash the bad CPU!"

Purple Heart mentally grimaced, but didn't let it show on her face. "Compa, show Peashy your needles."

Compa nodded and pulled out a large syringe and needle, causing Peashy to stare, her pupils shrinking as she saw it. "Should I give the naughty girl a shot in the butt?"

"AHHH! SCARY POKEY!" Peashy screamed and tried to get away from the scary needle, causing everyone but Purple Heart and Compa to sweat-drop at seeing the display.

"I dunno about you, but I'd be scared of a giant needle if I was tied up." Filyn muttered.

"Considering that we were all injected with something while tied up, I think it's understandable." Uni muttered as she got feeling back in her limbs and was helped to her feet by Steamax and Black Void. "Thanks." He nodded to her and walked over to Gust, who looked at him nervously, but allowed him to massage her arms.

While Steamax worked Gust's arms and legs over, causing the bunny girl to let out a loud moan of pleasure, Purple Heart looked at Peashy, who was scooting away while looking at them in fear. "P-Ko..." She said softly before an idea came to her. 'Well, if she's afraid of needles and she has my P-ko's weird sense of what's cool, maybe...'

"What?" Peashy glared at Purple Heart while struggling in her binds.

"Did you ever hear the story of the brave warrior Ai-chan?" Purple Heart asked, causing Peashy to blink in confusion. "She fought to save her princess from the evil Pish before the vile demon lord Pururut could be summoned to the world."

"Woooooaaaah!" Peashy's eyes sparkled. "What happened?"

"The brave warrior Ai-chan was cursed by Demons so that whenever her blood would boil, she'd release the fires of hell out of her cursed right hand."

Compa and Linda both looked at each other in confusion and then back at Purple Heart and Peashy. Both of them recognized those statements as something that IF would say from time to time when she was trying to relieve stress and have some fun, as much as her burned body allowed her to at least.

"Uh huh! So what happened?" Peashy asked, getting excited.

"Well, before that..." Purple Heart pulled out a pudding cup with her name on it. "I think I'll have a pudding."

"HUH?!" More than one person yelled at once.

"You can't just leave us all hanging!" Black Void, to everyone's surprise, yelled in frustration. "...What? I want to know more."

Purple Heart resisted the urge to laugh. 'Even here you're a Chuuni, huh, Noire?' She thought to herself, remembering how her Noire and IF had combined their Chuunibyou attitudes to create a combination attack of dark hellfire.

At least that's what they claimed, Purple Heart privately just thought they were just using it as an excuse to have some fun role playing while slaughtering monsters together.

"Nep... Pudding?" Peashy asked as Purple Heart held it at such an angle that she could read it. "Nep...Nappu...Neppu..." Her eyes widened as memories of the woman in front of her returned. "Nep...Neptuna?" Her eyes started to water as she sniffled. "Neptuna! WAAAAH!"

Purple Heart smiled and quickly released Peashy from her restraints as she hugged the girl tightly. "That's right, P-Ko... Your Neptuna is here." She whispered as tears filled her eyes.

Sadly, the touching scene was cut short as a shadow formed overhead and everyone looked up to see the C.I.D. overhead.

Mentally sighing, Purple Heart gave Peashy a kiss on the forehead and put her down. "So what's going on now?"

Black Void simply called up a screen and Kei and Gernia G. appeared on it. "What are you planning now?" She narrowed her eyes at the look on Kei's face. "It's over. Just tell me what you really are planning."

Kei narrowed her eyes on the screen. "I absolutely loathe you. You were born with everything, looks, power, position and everything, yet you don't care to use it."

"Like you would?" Black Void asked, raising an eyebrow.

Kei snarled at her. "I had to claw, scratch and fight my way up in the world, and yet, there you are, sitting on your ass, everything handed to you while the rest of us suffer." Her glare increased as Black Void merely yawned at her. "You bitch..."

"As you once said," Black Void smirked at her, "it takes a bitch to know a bitch."

"...Fair enough." Kei conceded. "But that's enough of that. I think it's time for your reign to come to an end." She snapped her fingers. "BRAVE!"

As the C.I.D. opened its doors, everyone watched as a large object fell to the ground below, transforming into a humanoid shape.

"What the fuck?!" Gust, Linda, Warechu and, shockingly, Compa all yelled out at the same time.

"...Compa knows how to swear?" Purple Heart asked, shock in her voice and on her face as her eyes were white and blank. "That's the most surprising thing since I've come to this world!"

"Lady Noire, this is..." Steamax trailed off as Brave landed not far from them. While the other robot wasn't a super giant, he was still larger than all of them by a decent amount. "What should we do?"

Black Void pointed her sword at Brave. "You beat me before, I admit."

"Then surrender." Brave told her as he stood up and pulled out his sword, pointing it at Black Void. "You lack the same power that you had last time. And even if you have a ninja, we both know the results of such a fight."

"You're forgetting one thing," Purple Heart said to the lion-chested robot as she stepped forward and pointed her large katana at him. "There's more than just Black Void and Steamax that you face this time."

"That's right." Uni said as she pulled out her shotgun and glared at Brave. "I won't let you hurt sis like you did last time."

Rom and Ram both nodded as they formed staves in their hands. "You captured us," Ram began as magic began to charge up in her body.

"And then forced us to fight our big sister and friends!" Rom finished as the air crackled with power.

"I do believe that I have some frustration to work out as well." Chrome said to Brave. "I do wish that I had my mace, but I think I'll be fine."

The others said nothing but they gave Brave a hard stare.

"I see," Brave nodded to them as his sword lit up with flames. "I commend your bravery, all of you. But it will be useless against me." His shoulder cannons formed and he fired a blast at the group, who all jumped out of the way of the attack.

"Thunder..." Rom began as she touched down on the ground, "Buster!" A beam with lightning crackling around it erupted from her staff and she stared in surprise as Brave fired a stream of energy from his shoulder cannons at it, causing the attack to destabilize and explode a safe distance away from him.

"You seem surprised." Brave told her. "While you were all captured, poked, prodded and scanned, all of your powers and abilities were used to upgrade my abilities."

"Oh yeah?" Uni said as Steamax ran by with her on his shoulders. "Try again!" She fired a shot, only to find that her shotgun blast, which could knock over an armored truck with ease, bounced harmlessly off of his shield. "SHIT!"

"I told you," Brave yelled as he swung he sword out, sending a wave of energy that sent Steamax, Uni, Rom and Ram flying backwards. "It's useless, just give up."

"That's not the way we do things!" Filyn yelled as she came rushing in with Peashy next to her. "Peashy! NOW!"

"Pea Cannonball..."

"STRIKE!" Filyn finished as she swung her weapon with all her might, hitting Peashy's body and sending the small CPU Candidate into Brave, causing him to get knocked off of his feet and land on his back hard.

Sadly, this did nothing but cause Brave to activate his thrusters and fly away until he was back on his feet. "Well, that was impressive." Brave muttered before rushing forward at speeds that the others had a hard time keeping up with as he seemingly teleported to where Peashy was still recovering from her attack. "Now, die!"

His flaming sword descended upon Peashy, who looked up at it in horror.

Two loud clangs rang out as Purple Heart and Black Void crossed their swords over Brave's in an "X" pattern, holding him off. "P-Ko! Run!" Purple Heart yelled as she and Black Void tried their hardest to push Brave back. 'Dammit, I'm just not strong enough like this.' She could tell she was running low on power too. Between the corruption of the Fearicite and the fact that she hadn't had time to recover from everything that had happened since she got to Lastation, her body was starting to get worn down.

Black Void grimaced as she was pushed back by Brave. "What the hell is with this strength?"

Purple Heart grunted as she was forced to her knees. "If we could just get a moment..."

"We got you!" Uni said as she took a shot with her energy rifle while Rom and Ram backed her up with long-range magic.

"USELESS!" Brave yelled and fired his shoulder cannons, sending a large blast out that connected with their shots, causing them all to explode.

"Noire!" Purple Heart yelled and both CPUs managed to push Brave away enough to get out from under him as his flaming sword came crashing down where they were.

Both CPUs slid backwards, panting from the effort to block his attacks.

"All I can say is at least he's not trying to capture and tentacle us." Purple Heart muttered, thankful for small miracles at least.

"No, just kill us." Black Void commented before giving Purple Heart an angry look with blank, white eyes. "And what's with the capture and tentacle part? He already did the capturing part!"

Purple Heart gave her a wry grin. "Well, when I was captured by his leader, I ended up being bound by tentacles for three years."

"...I really want to hear more of what you've been through." Black Void muttered and looked back at Brave as he stood tall over them. "Sounds more interesting than what I've gone through in life."

"What do we do, Chromey?" Filyn asked and looked at her sister. "If he's got data on all of us and can counter all of our abilities..."

Chrome frowned and wondered what she could do, her razor wires could, at most. scratch him and she hadn't built up enough drive meter for her EXE attack again. 'Even if I had my mace...' Her thoughts trailed off, knowing that even if she gave it to someone fast enough to hit him, such as Steamax, it was doubtful any of them could lift the thing and not be adversely affected by its weight. "So what can I... Huh?" She blinked as she felt her hand brush against something. Looking down, she saw the wristwatch that she had taken and remembered Noire mentioning something about an experimental weapon system. "No time like the present to try, huh?" She put her thumb on the screen and when it turned green, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Access!"

"Huh?" Filyn looked at Chrome as she was bathed in a green light. When the light ended, she stared as her elder sister was standing there in a skin-tight black body suit that did nothing to hide her curves and had a masked helmet on her head.

"...I feel like I'm wearing nothing at all." Chrome muttered as she looked herself over. There were some silver lining on the body suit, but it otherwise covered every inch of skin from her neck down while being so skin tight that she was surprised that the outline of her nipples and other naughty parts weren't being on display.

Taking a quick glance behind her, she saw her reflection on a shiny surface and raised an eyebrow. 'Well, at the very least my butt looks really nice right now.'

"Weapon system online. Armor enhancements activate."

Chrome looked at her wrist and tilted her head. "Why does it feel like I should do a pose or something?" Thinking about it for a moment, she nodded her head and held her arms to the side. "Fuck it! Let's just go all out here." Putting her right arm into the sky, she and Filyn watched as things flew right at her, wrapping around her arms and legs, wrapping them in armor. Her legs were encased in metal armor before a chest plate appeared on her body and smaller armor parts covered her shoulders, stomach and sides.

When the armor was done attaching itself to her, Chrome looked like she was wearing a full-body suit of armor.

Moving her hands around while staring at her body, Chrome nodded. "Well, this is interesting." And she had no idea what this suit could do. "If only I knew..."

_"Welcome to LSVRP. Would you like a tutorial on how to use the basics of the system and the suit?"_

Chrome shook her head. "Just tell me what this thing can do."

_"Affirmative. This exo-suit comes equipped with chain blaster and boosts the user's performance by a factor of three."_

"...So how come this suit is not red?" Chrome asked the suit.

_"All factors, not just speed, are increased, so that is why."_ The suit replied.

"I see, does it have flight?"

_"Yes."_

Chrome smirked and activated the flight abilities of the suit.

And shot straight into the air. "WAAAAGH!"

On the ground, Filyn stared and twitched a few times. "Who knew that CPUs sucked at flying when it wasn't under their own power?" It was kind of amusing to watch her sister fly around in an uncontrollable manner while doing all sorts of flips, spins and dips at high speed, though.

No, Filyn was NOT upset at Chrome using her EXE attack on her, but this was still amusing.

(-)

Not far away, Black Void fired blasts at Brave, who simply countered them just as easily as he countered the CPU Candidates. Even Purple Heart's sword spam was easily dealt with. "Okay, I'm running out of ideas here." Black Void huffed as she was starting to run out of breath.

"I've got a couple of ideas, but I need him to..."

"WAAAAAAAAGH!" A voice came out of nowhere and everyone stared in shock as someone in an armored suit of some sort slammed into Brave, forcing him to slide back several feet as his boosters kept him from crashing to the ground.

"Now!" Purple Heart's pupils shrank as an idea came to her. Turning to Black Void, she nodded. "Listen, I know we don't really have time to build up our Lily Rank or anything like that, so can we just skip that?" Black Void gave her a confused look, but nodded. "Okay, great. I need you to put all your trust in me."

"Huh?" Black Void was confused as Purple Heart came up to her. "What do you mean?"

Purple Heart smiled at her softly. "I have a move that will work and it actually needs less energy from me than my other EXE drives."

"...Wait, you have TWO?!" Black Void pouted at that. "No fair, I only have one."

"Three, but one I can't use right now." Purple Heart muttered, "and that's what kind of privilege being the main character grants you."

"Fine, I'll let you do what you need. So what..." Black Void blinked as she felt a surge of power going through her. "What?"

"Thanks, Noire." Purple Heart smiled as her sword disappeared. "Let's do this! HDD: Noire!"

"WHAAAA AAAHHH AAAAH!" Black Void screamed as she was bathed in black and white energies, transforming herself into an extremely large and wicked looking sword with sharp, jagged edges on the blade. "What the hell is this?!"

Purple Heart grabbed the sword by the hilt and rushed forward. "Just trust me and let's end these foolish ambitions for good."

"Sounds good to me." The sword said as Brave looked at the CPU rushing in and ignited his sword to strike Purple Heart down.

He was interrupted as Rom, Ram and Uni all fired at him, forcing him to return fire to block their attack and allow Purple Heart to get close to him. "Just FRY!" He yelled and swung his sword down at them.

"SAME TO YOU!" Both Purple Heart and Black Void yelled at the same time as Brave swung at them, their blades crossing in a very loud clang that created a flash of light that forced everyone to look away.

When the light faded, everyone saw Brave with his body bent over and his sword fully extended with Purple Heart still holding the over-sized sword in a similar position behind him.

Purple Heart grimaced and fell to a knee while letting go of the sword, allowing it to revert to Black Void, who landed on her butt. "Darn it, I knew he was strong, but..."

Brave suddenly started to chuckle. "Impressive. An attack I had no data on, no way of countering and you used it to win." At that moment Brave's sword broke in half and slid to the ground. "CPU... Purple Heart and CPU Black Void, I thank you for the fight. I only wish that I had not been programmed to fight against you."

"...If I get through this," Black Void told him, "maybe I'll see about having you rebuilt with the proper programming."

"Thank you." Brave said as a line formed in a diagonal direction from his right shoulder down to his hip and his body slid apart in a heap.

"...I'm surprised." Purple Heart said as she and Black Void helped each other stand up. "I would think you wouldn't like him."

"He's not human." Black Void told her instantly. "And having someone like that around would make it easier for me to deal with problems other than just obvious threats her in Lastation."

Purple Heart smiled at her softly.

"I apologize, Lady Noire, for disappearing in that battle." Steamax said as he walked forward, dragging two people with him. "But I felt that you had things well in hand and when it became obvious that I would be more of a hindrance, I thought that it would be a good idea to get these two." He threw Gernia G. and Kei to the ground in front of him. "And bring them before you."

"Well?" Black Void narrowed her eyes at Kei. "What have you got to say for yourself?"

"I might be able to convince Noire to take it easy on you, depending on what your answer is." Purple Heart said.

"Well..." Gernia G. muttered as she looked at the upset CPU Candidates and the two fully realized CPUs. There were some other people glaring at her, but she didn't pay them any attention.

"WAAAAAAGH!" Chrome yelled as her suit finally stopped the flying and she crashed onto the ground. "...At least I didn't feel that." She muttered and stood up, the armor disappearing, but the body suit stayed on. "...I kind of like this spandex suit though."

"You okay?" Filyn asked, getting a nod from Chrome.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Chrome said while moving her arm to the side. "...I feel a strange urge to do lots of poses while I'm wearing this suit though."

Standing in front of the others, Kei glowered at Black Void. "You... I hate you so much. To be born on top of the world while someone like me was born into slavery..."

Black Void blinked and tapped her chin. "Oh yeah..." She muttered in disinterest. "I broke up a really big slave ring operation over fifteen years ago, didn't I?"

"Wait..." Purple Heart began and looked at Kei. "If that's the case, shouldn't you thank her for ending it?"

Kei growled at Purple Heart. "I had nothing when the ring was broken up. A six year old girl who had been trained as a slave. I had nothing and was living on the streets, fighting and scraping by to survive."

"And I discovered her five years ago as the leader of a group of gangs." Black Void commented. "I was actually impressed by her ability to organize those under her, so I brought her in to work for me."

"Your anger and plot doesn't make sense to me." Purple Heart muttered and Kei glared at her. "Well, it doesn't."

"For someone who was born with everything handed to her, who was given her role in life and never had to worry about anything," Kei snorted at her, "of course you wouldn't. You never had to work and fight to survive like I have."

"That's not fair!" Rom yelled at Kei. "Big sis is awesome and showed me and Ram what being a real CPU is like."

While Rom, Ram and Peashy defended her, Purple Heart just stared at Kei with an indescribable look on her face. "You're..." She lowered her hands and sighed. "You're not wrong." She said softly as the others looked at her, most of them in surprise.

"Big sis?" Ram asked. "Are you okay?"

"You're right, Kei," Purple Heart looked at Kei and ignored the others, "I never had to struggle like you did. In fact, I took my position and powers for granted to the point that my own citizens lost faith in me several times."

"At least one of you understands." Kei muttered and looked at Black Void.

"What?" Black Void narrowed her eyes at Kei. "Should I be sorry for you? I can't control what people do in their lives."

"You're a Goddess, aren't you?" Kei asked, glaring at her. "You have such power in you and yet you don't use it to fix the problems permanently." Her glare and obvious anger increased at the disinterested look she got in return.

"As powerful as I am, Kei," Black Void shook her head, "I'm not omnipotent. If I could clear away all the corruption of Lastation and purge the world of people who disrupt order, don't you think I would have done so years ago?" She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before letting it out. "It's time," she opened them and gave Kei a look that was almost sad. "For all the sins you've committed, your only punishment is death."

Kei reached into her inventory and pulled out something that had everyone look on in shock. "Fine!" She grinned as the item in her hand started to crackle and pulse with power. "Then I'll use the rebuilt Fearicite crystal for myself!"

A pulse of power sent everyone but Kei and Gernia G., who was close to Kei, flying away.

Landing on the ground and sliding a few feet, Purple Heart stared as Kei took the Fearicite Crystal close to her. "I've got a bad feeling, why is this causing my main character warning system to scream at me?"

"I told you, Noire," Kei grinned as her body started to get flooded with power. "I could rebuild the Fearicite Crystal. And I've adjusted it so that anyone could use it if they wanted to."

As the crystal glowed and crackled, Purple Heart jerked. "No way... Anyone can use it, this is..." Memories of a certain object flooded her mind. "A CPU Memory?! You turned the Fearicite Crystal into a CPU Memory!?"

"Hmm, is that what it's called?" Kei asked, shrugging as she absorbed it and was engulfed in blinding black light. The surge of power made her feel so strong that she felt that she couldn't be hurt ever again. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

When the light ended, Kei was standing there with her hair being much longer, her skin had turned white, her eyes were gray with a Void power symbol in them and her body had changed, growing a few inches, her bust increasing to match Black Void's, her hips getting slightly wider and her chest had a hole in it while she was covered in a body suit that was black that covered her chest, abdomen and crotch with armored parts on her arms and legs while leaving parts of her chest and sides exposed.

"Steamax!" Black Void yelled, "why didn't you stop her?"

"I apologize." Steamax said as he jumped away from Kei's new HDD form. "I wanted to, but I was stopped due to the programming that was placed upon me when I was rebuilt."

Black Void growled as Kei stood there, generating a ton of power. "Okay, what should we do now?"

"...This is wrong." Purple Heart muttered as she took a trembling step back. "This is too much power for a fresh CPU. Even Yellow Heart never generated this much power and she had the entire world's shares powering her."

Hell, now that Purple Heart thought about it, the feeling she was getting from this exceeded even CFW Magic or Rei's HDD powers. "It's almost like..." Her face paled and her pupils shrank. "No... STOP! DISENGAGE YOUR HDD!"

"And why should I?" Kei countered as she formed a helmet on her head that looked like it had horns on the side with a red visor over her eyes, a red button on top with a Void power symbol on it and six black wings, three on each side, formed on her back. "I feel so powerful right now." She threw her head back and laughed while snapping her right arm to the side as a large broadsword covered it. "I'll destroy all of you right now!"

Taking a stance, Kei was about to move forward when she felt her whole body throb and power, far more than before, started to flood her. "What... What's going on!?"

"...Those who aren't compatible with a CPU Memory turn into a horrible monster." Purple Heart said softly. "And it looks like this is... Wait..." She took another step back. "This isn't right, it's way more powerful."

Suddenly Kei let loose a scream and started swinging her sword arm around and around while moving erratically.

"Hey! I'm on your side! So don't GAH!" Whatever Gernia G. was about to say was cut off, as was her head, as Kei's sword cut through where she was a moment before.

"Well, she's dead." Uni muttered, glad that bitch was gone. After all, her breasts, as small as they were, still hurt from the injections that Gernia G. did, not to mention her sides, stomach and other parts that were poked and prodded.

And she didn't even want to get started on how Gernia G. made her feel labor pains. 'When this is over, maybe I can convince Noire to start some sort of holiday for women who have had kids once a year or something?'

As red lightning crackled out of Kei's skin, Black Void snarled and flipped her hip blasters forward. "Fuck this, not waiting to see what she turns into." She fired both blasts at the transforming Kei and watched as the blasts slammed into her, kicking up dust and obscuring the vision of everyone.

"You got her!" Ram cheered. "Good shot." Ram didn't mind this Void, since, unlike the other Voids, she didn't try to seriously hurt her, Rom, her big sister or anyone else in the party.

Purple Heart narrowed her eyes. "No, it didn't..."

A sudden burst of power, accompanied by a strong gust of wind interrupted her and forced everyone to look away for a moment. When the wind died down they saw Kei, unharmed, behind a barrier.

"So now..." Black Void stopped speaking as Kei let out a scream and her body was engulfed in a white light. "What the hell is going on!?"

As Purple Heart watched, she felt a surge of power that she recognized. "It... It can't be..." She, and everyone else, watched as the light faded and Kei's body started to grow...

...And grow...

...And grow...

...Before stopping off at thirty meters in the air.

"It... Can't be!" Purple Heart gasped in horror as she saw what Kei had become.

"That's right, Nepsy," she heard Kurome's voice from behind as she felt a body hug her with one hand grabbing her right breast and the other hand stroking her chin.

"Kurome?" Purple Heart whispered as she stared at what Kei had become with dread in her heart.

Kurome smiled and leaned in, giving Purple Heart a kiss on the cheek. "If you beat her, come to Planeptune, all the answers you want are there." She looked up at the transformed Kei and sighed. "That is, if you can beat her." She faded away.

"What is this thing?!" Chrome yelled out as she had never seen something like this before.

"...A Dark CPU." Purple Heart answered her. "Now I recognize her HDD. She's... Dark Black."

To be continued...

* * *

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!


	67. Vs Dark Black

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Time for the showdown against Dark Black

* * *

Chapter 59

"A Dark CPU?" Black Void asked. "What's so special about them besides the size?"

"...In my world, even one of them was capable of destroying entire dimensions, rending all life on the planet and just being around them would cause the sky itself to crack into pieces." Purple Heart said as she looked at Dark Black.

"So how do you beat it?" Chrome asked as she walked forward and Purple Heart shook her head. "Neptune?"

"I... Without a Sharing Field, we can't trap it and weaken it enough to hurt it." Purple Heart looked down and trembled. 'Why? Did I trip a bad end flag somewhere? Author, can I reload my save file so I can try again?'

"Hmph!" Black Void snorted as she looked at Dark Black. "Kei, you bitch, even if you're larger, you're going to die."

"Noire!" Purple Heart suddenly yelled out as Black Void's blasters built up power. "It won't work!"

"I am CPU Black Void, this is my nation! I won't allow some giant creature destroy what's mine!" Black Void yelled. "And even if it's impossible, I don't care! I'd rather go down fighting than do nothing at all! Pulsar Blaster!" The ends of Black Void's blasters glowed before firing a shot of power from each barrel that connected with each other and grew larger before slamming into Dark Black's body, causing the Dark CPU to cry out in pain as she staggered backwards.

"How?" Purple Heart asked in shock.

"Um, maybe this is a stupid idea, but..." Rom spoke up. "Maybe she hasn't fully adjusted to the power yet?" Purple Heart spun on Rom, staring in shock. "It sounds like you fought this thing before, big sis, but this thing was more used to its power when you fought it? So maybe that's why?"

"I don't know," Purple Heart said as she turned back to look at Dark Black. "But right now that sounds good to me and if that's the case, then let's go with it."

"And what are we supposed to do against something that's almost thirty meters tall?" Chrome asked. "No offense, but I'm not in a mood to try crashing into this one like I did with that other robot."

"Brave," Black Void told her, "his name was Brave. And that's a good point, I can shoot it, but..."

"You think I became a giant or we somehow made them shrink down to our level?" Purple Heart asked rhetorically. "The problem is, we need to contain Dark Black so it can't get away."

"Is that all?" Black Void asked in a haughty tone. "Do you really think that I didn't have some sort of counter-measures involved for every situation I could think of?"

"...A thirty meter tall giant is a situation you thought of?" Chrome asked and Noire twitched at the question.

"...I thought that I would need to build a thirty meter tall giant robot to fight against giant space aliens, okay?" Black Void huffed in annoyance.

"...So Chuuni." Purple Heart muttered softly as Black Void blushed.

"Stop teasing me or I'll let her squish you first!" Black Void yelled at her. "And, no, I don't have a giant robot, it was too impractical to build one that size. But I did make a forcefield that could contain things that size."

"...If we get through this, I'll introduce you to my sister." Purple Heart told Black Void. "She could build you the giant robot you wanted."

Jerking, Black Void stared at her and then she looked at Dark Black. "Well then, I can't lose here, can I?"

"Neptuna?" Peashy spoke up, "what should we do?"

"Peashy, I need you and everyone else to get away from this fight." Everyone looked at Purple Heart in surprise. "This isn't a normal fight, and unless you can fight at a long range, fighting back against Dark Black will be impossible."

"If that's the case," Chrome looked at Rom and Ram. "Take them with you."

"But..." Purple Heart jerked and Chrome looked at her seriously.

"Part of becoming a CPU is to face dangerous situations, Neptune." Chrome gave the other CPU a wry smirk. "You need to trust them."

Purple Heart sighed and nodded, she knew that. She did.

That didn't mean that she had to like it.

Black Void looked at Uni. "...I want you to go with the others and get away from here."

"No way!" Uni yelled and before Black Void could do anything more, Uni was next to her, hugging her elder sister. "I nearly lost you once because of that bitch, do you think I want you to go and fight her without me?"

Black Void looked at Uni sadly and sighed. "Uni, I just..."

"You know," Chrome spoke to her, "what I said applies to you as well." She gave Black Void a sideways glance, "I swear, younger CPUs put too much pressure on themselves to do everything on their own." She sighed softly. "This whole world is such a mess because we CPUs kept trying to do everything on our own and not working with each other."

"Um," Compa looked at Dark Black, "she looks like she's starting to recover from that attack."

"Then..." Black Void looked at everyone and looked down at her sister and nodded as Uni let go of the hug. "Let's hurry and deal with her." She then looked at Steamax, "Steamax, go with them and protect them."

"I apologize, Lady Noire," Steamax told her, "I cannot follow that order."

Black Void gave him a sharp look. "What?!"

"I refuse to go along with an order that would make it impossible for me to protect either you or Lady Uni." Steamax told her and walked up to her before taking a knee to her. "Please, forgive me, but I cannot let you face this threat by yourself."

"Steamax, just go with them!" Black Void yelled at him as images of his broken body flashed through her mind. "I can't..."

"Steamax," Purple Heart spoke up, "please do what she says." She looked at Black Void and then back at Steamax, "I promise you, on my life, that Noire and Uni will both return from the battle against Dark Black alive."

Everyone looked at Purple Heart in shock and Steamax slowly stood and nodded at her. "Very well, CPU Purple Heart, I shall hold you to that." He looked at Black Void. "Lady Noire, Lady Uni, please be safe." They nodded at him.

"It's time." Purple Heart said as she saw that Dark Black had fully recovered from that attack. "Go!"

"Right!" Compa yelled as she, Warechu, Filyn, Peashy, Gust, Linda and Steamax all quickly retreated from the upcoming battle.

"Neptune," Chrome walked up to Purple Heart. She stopped a few steps away from the CPU before hugging her tightly. "Good luck."

Purple Heart blinked in surprise and hugged Chrome back. "Thanks." She meant it too, it was really nice to have this feeling.

Chrome let go of the hug and smiled at her before cupping Purple Heart's cheek. "Please, come back alive."

Purple Heart smiled at her. "Put every ounce of faith you have into me. Pray if you have to. The more I have, the stronger I'll become."

"Of course." Chrome smiled at her. She then looked at Black Void. "...Can't believe I'm doing this, but I'll put every ounce of hatred I have towards Voids towards you."

Black Void smirked at her. "Thanks." It was odd, but considering that Voids needed negative feelings to power themselves, it was the only way that she could increase her abilities, even if just a little bit.

"Oh, and don't lose." Chrome said before running off.

"Let's..." Purple Heart trailed off and looked at her left hand. "What the..?"

"Big sis?" Rom asked and Purple Heart shook her head. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Purple Heart said to her. "Noire, can you get the force field into place? And will there be areas to walk on up there?"

Black Void smirked at her. "Of course, who do think I am?" She pulled out a small device and tapped it a few times as the air around them distorted. After that, she grabbed Uni and flew up while Purple Heart picked up Rom and Ram, flying up after her.

As they flew up, Purple Heart lightly bit her lip. 'I swear, I thought I saw...' It didn't matter, she had to focus on the upcoming fight against Dark Black.

(-)

As Chrome got close to the others of her group, she turned to look back at the giant and saw that the air was distorted around the creature. "Good luck everyone."

"Hey, Chromey, what should we..." Whatever Filyn was going to say was cut off as the sound of whirling blades filled the air. Turning and looking up, everyone saw a helicopter descend to the ground as three people jumped out of it when it got close.

"Dengekiko of Lastation Channel 5 news," a blonde girl with white shorts, a large red and black belt, a black top and black boots and leggings appeared with a microphone in her hand.

A girl with short orange hair, green eyes, a crown on her head and wearing a red shirt and a black miniskirt that was held by suspenders while having red shoes and white leggings on her legs spoke up next. "Famitsu of Lastation Channel 9 news here, what's going on?"

"Hey! It's Abnes with Lastation Channel 6 News!" The third person spoke up, "inquiring minds need to know."

"Indeed," Mr. Badd said as he walked up to the group, causing the three reporters to stiffen in shock. "What is going on?" The next thing he knew, he was being lifted off the ground by Steamax, "hey! Unhand me!"

"You were in on the conspiracy to harm both Lady Noire and Lady Uni," Steamax told him, "said scheme also brainwashed the CPU Candidates of Lowee, Leanbox, Eden and Lastation while attempting to eliminate Lady Noire."

Suddenly Mr. Badd stopped struggling and nodded. "Yes, it's true, I was working with Lady Kei. Please, put me down and I'll explain myself."

Steamax looked at Mr. Badd for a few moments before nodding and dropping him to the ground. "Speak then."

Coughing, Mr. Badd struggled to his feet. "Yes, oww, yes, I was working with Lady Kei." He rubbed the spot where Steamax had grabbed him. "I was not, however, on her side." He ignored the looks of disbelief he was getting and continued, "I worked for Lady Black Void and, yes, I had the news organizations spread news across Lastation to make Lady Black Void look worse than she was."

"Why?" Steamax asked, his tone displaying his displeasure at the thought. "Lady Noire deserves none of that."

"Because, as a Void, she needs negative feelings towards her, such as distrust and hate, to be able to transform and get power." Mr. Badd explained to them. "I knew people who worked for the previous CPU years ago and they explained this to me. If the people knew what Lady Black Void was doing for them, then they would lose their fear and distrust of her and start believing in her."

"Which, ironically, would weaken her." Chrome summarized, getting a nod from Mr. Badd.

"If it's true the you were not against Lady Noire, why did you work to undermine her?" Steamax asked and Mr. Badd shook his head.

"A few years ago, Kei came to me and convinced me that as Lady Black Heart did nothing to increase the power of the Fearicite on her own that she was unfit to be the ruler of Lastation, as her inner circle was doing more work than we should have."

"You're wrong," Steamax spoke up, "Lady Noire does more work than you think she does."

"I know," Mr. Badd agreed with him, "however, Kei laid out some convincing arguments and eventually convinced me that Lastation would be better off without a CPU." He shook his head. "I admit, she got the better of me in that exchange and I found myself agreeing with her to an extent."

"Oh?" Chrome asked him, "what extent?"

"Please understand that I merely want what's best for Lastation." Mr. Badd told them. "However, my ability to do so is... Limited outside of having the news reported on."

"...You own three news organizations?" Compa asked.

"I fund them, yes, but I do not own them. Think of it as me being a partner and making sure that there's stuff for people to watch." Mr. Badd told her.

"Um, boss..." Famitsu spoke up, "we really need to know what's with that giant there."

"CPU Purple Heart," Steamax started to speak, "said that it was a Dark CPU and has the power to destroy all of Gamworld if she and Lady Noire do not stop it here and now."

"But where did it come from?" Dengekiko asked, looking at it and shuddering in fear.

Chrome gave Mr. Badd a long stare before sighing and deciding that the people of Lastation needed to know this. "That thing, Dark Black, as Purple Heart called it, was what happened when Kei, who attempted to murder CPU Black Void, took the power of the Fearicite into herself."

"..So what you're saying is that Kei is that monster?" Mr. Badd asked, shock on his face and in his voice.

"What you see is nothing more than a reflection of her true self." Chrome told him and looked at the three reporters. "Right now CPU Purple Heart, CPU Black Void and the CPU Candidates of both Lastation and Lowee are fighting to stop it and protect everyone. Write it however you want, but that's the truth."

"Neptuna..." Peashy muttered softly as she looked at where the others were. "Don't worry! Pea will get everyone away from the bad monster! You just smash it!"

(-)

"I don't suppose you can create a walk-way with your force fields?" Purple Heart asked and Black Void snapped her fingers as the air shimmered into a circular platform around Dark Black. "Stupid question."

Black Void smirked as she put Uni down while Purple Heart did the same for Rom and Ram. "Any tips?"

"Close range combat isn't very useful, just spam skills on it."

"Fair enough!" Black Void said as she dismissed her sword and pointed her hips blasters at Dark Black. "KEI!" Dark Black suddenly turned and growled. "I have to admit, I'm actually kind of impressed. It takes some real balls to do what you did." She narrowed her eyes at the giant. "If you hadn't used my sister like that, I might have found use for you after this was all done."

**"Ha ha ha ha! You still talk like that!?"** A voice that was a distortion of Kei's and what sounded like Black Void's voice came out of the Dark CPU. **"I will destroy you and take Lastation for myself! No, not Lastation. With this power I shall rule Gamworld!"**

"She certainly has the power to do that." Purple Heart said. "She's coming!"

**"LET US BEGIN THE SYMPHONY OF DESPAIR!"** Dark Black cried out.

"Move!" Purple Heart yelled as she and Black Void dodged to the side while Dark Black swung her sword in an arc towards them, missing the two CPUs and nearly blowing the three Candidates off of the force field ground.

"Wow!" Uni cried out as she pulled out an energy rifle. "You bitch, if not for you..." Tears welled up in her eyes. "You nearly made me kill my sister!" She fired a blast at Dark Black and watched as the blast did little more than leave a small scuff mark on Dark Black's arm.

"Let me help!" Ram piped in as fire danced around her. "Inferno... BLAZE!" Several magic circles formed in front of her, each one releasing a torrent of white-hot fire that hit Dark Black in the shoulder.

**"GAH!" **The giant screamed out.** "DISAPPEAR INTO THE LIGHT!"** The sword on the giant's right arm started to glow and she swung down at the candidates.

"RAM!" Her twin cried out as Rom jumped in front of her and cast a defensive barrier spell, which was quickly augmented by Ram. "NGH!"

**"HA HA HA HA! DIE!"**

"I don't think so!" Purple Heart yelled as several large swords came out of nowhere and blasted the giant in the shoulders and legs. "Take this! VICTORY SLASH!" She rushed in, swinging her sword twice and dealing severe damage to the Dark CPU, leaving cracks in the helmet.

Floating above Dark Black, Black Void narrowed her eyes at the Dark CPU. "Kei, of all the people in Lastation, you were someone I didn't loathe with all my being." She took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "But even if you were someone I tolerated, I won't go easy on you! Ionic Blaster!" Her hip blasters snapped forward and started rapid firing blasts at Dark Black, scattering them all over the giant's body.

When Dark Black cried out and swung her sword in a wide arc, the resulting air pressure blasted everyone into the force field barrier with such force that it took them some time to not only regain their senses, but also slide down from it.

"Holy..." Uni began, her eyes wide. "That was just the air pressure!"

Ram began to whimper as her feet touched the transparent ground. "I... I'm scared. What can we do against that?"

Rom looked at Dark Black and narrowed her eyes. "...Her sword! That's gotta be the trick to that attack!" As she watched the two CPUs fly around and get Dark Black's attention away from them, ideas started to form in her head.

"But there's no way we can just grab it and remove it!" Uni declared and looked at it. "Hell, we can barely scratch her, so what are we going to do about that sword?"

"...Destroy it." Ram said, shocking both of them. "Rom, don't you remember what we learned about storms and energy?" She pointed at Uni's energy rifle. "What if we..?"

"Oh! I get it!" Rom's eyes started to sparkle as she looked at Uni. "Want to really smash that evil bitch?"

The shark-like grin on Uni's face told her all she needed to know.

(-)

"Victory Slash!" Purple Heart called out as a sigil formed behind her while she rushed forward, her katana gleaming in the light. "Judgement!" She yelled as she passed by Dark Black, energy strikes hitting the horns on its helmet, shattering them.

**"GAH!" **Dark Black cried out as she jerked and stumbled backwards.** "JUST DIE ALREADY YOU LITTLE PEST!"**

"Sorry, not going to happen." Black Void said as she clasped her hands together while having her index and middle fingers extended upwards and focused her power. "ICE FALL!" Several large magic circles appeared around Dark Black and Black Void closed her eyes while slowly lowering her hands. "GO!"

Large glaciers of ice came out of the circles and slammed into Dark Black from several angles, piercing the skin and making the giant scream in pain.

"I have to admit," Purple Heart said while panting, "you're showing me stuff that would have given me a hard time when we fought."

"You're too small and fast for this to work." Black Void said as she panted. "Unless you stood still like this was an RPG or something."

"Speaking of standing still, why haven't you blasted her with that big shot again?" Purple Heart asked, wondering if maybe Black Void needed time to recover more SP or something.

Black Void looked away and mumbled something that Purple Heart couldn't hear.

"...What was that, Noire?"

The red-tipped, white-haired CPU sighed and hung her head. "It's got a cool down period of like two hours, okay? I can't fire it again until it's ready."

Purple Heart tilted her head and smirked at her. "So you blew your load in one shot and you can't get it back up again?"

"YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO PUT IT LIKE THAT!" Black Void yelled at her, her face bright red while Purple Heart, who was blushing softly, laughed at her. "...Even if it is true."

Purple Heart's laughter increased.

**"YOU CAN JUST DIE NOW!"** Dark Black yelled as power started to build up and she held her sword up into the air where it glowed and increased in size.

(-)

"NOW!" Uni yelled as the three CPU Candidates stood behind Dark Black.

"Let's go, Ram!" Rom began as she leaned in and winked for no reason while the air became ionized with electricity.

"Right behind you, Rom." Ram smiled and spun around before holding her arms in front of her while Rom did the same thing while Uni stood between them. "Ready, Uni?"

"Yes." Uni nodded as she pointed her energy rifle at the giant sword. "Let's go!"

"Ion..." Rom began as power built up.

"Storm..." Ram continued as winds erupted around them.

"CANNON!" Uni finished and fired a blue-white beam of energy that was larger than a tank ripped through the air so fast that no one could react, except to stare as the natural light was turned to blue-white, rendering all other coloration mute.

The three girls watched in awe as the blast tore through Dark Black's upraised arm, tearing bone and muscle apart while traveling up to the sword and shattering it in an instant.

When the attack ended, the three girls, their hair blown backwards, could only gawk in amazement as they saw the result of their attack.

Dark Black stood there with one arm completely blown away, screaming in pain.

(-)

"...Noire..." Purple Heart couldn't keep the awe out of her voice at seeing that attack.

"I saw it." Black Void said, her voice holding just as much awe as Purple Heart's voice did.

"...Our sisters are awesome!" Purple Heart was giddy after seeing that. "How about we end this?"

Black Void smirked at her. "You go first, I've got another attack for large enemies specifically." She blushed softly when Purple Heart raised an eyebrow. "I told you! I thought I might have to fight giant alien monsters from deep space or something, so I developed attacks for that."

Purple Heart ignored that and turned to Dark Black. "Then I guess it's time to end this here," she held up her katana as a large surge of power filled her, "with Neptune Break!"

"...You named an attack after yourself?" Black Void asked as Purple Heart rushed forward, slashing Dark Black. "That's it?" She stopped as Purple Heart rushed back and returned another slash at Dark Black, repeating the process over and over and hitting from different angles before finishing with a powerful horizontal slash and landing on her feet, sliding forward.

Purple Heart calmly threw her sword into the air and caught it on its way back down. "You don't give up, huh?! Have some more!" In a surprising surge of strength, Purple Heart knocked Dark Black into the air as she flew above the giant. Hovering in mid-air, Purple Heart held her katana high in the sky as power condensed around the blade. "You're through!" She yelled and slashed down, cutting through Dark Black's helmet and leaving a line cut down her body as the giant was forced back to the ground in a painful manner.

**"GAAAAH!"** Dark Black yelled as her helmet shattered, revealing Kei's shocked, hurt and scared face. **"N...NO! THIS CANNOT BE! I WILL NOT LOSE!"**

"You're sounding like a bad mustache twirling villain from those old cartoons." Black Void told her calmly as she floated up to Dark Black's head. "Goodbye, Kei." She looked at the giant somewhat sadly, "I wish that it didn't have to come to this." She held up her right arm as black energy swirled around her and erupted into the sky.

Dark Black stared at Black Void and reached for the smaller CPU with her remaining left hand.

"Too late." Black Void whispered as the hand got closer. "EXE attack... METEOR SABER!"

The energy erupted upwards and materialized into a sword that was comically large and would have been big even in Dark Black's hands. In Black Void's hands, it looked ridiculous to the point of ludicrous.

When Black Void swung her arm down and the sword came cutting through the sky, cleaving and bisecting Dark Black's head, Black Void could only watch as the sword cut through the Dark CPU's body, splitting it in half and causing her to scream out in pain before light erupted from parts of her body. **"NOOOOOOOO!"**

When the giant's whole body turned into bright light before shattering into particles of light and dust, Black Void just nodded. "Rest in peace." She whispered and turned away from where the Dark CPU had been a moment ago.

Kei Jinguji, who had taken on the power of a Dark CPU, was no more.

To be continued...

* * *

About time that bitch was gone.

...I hope the battle was good.

The part at the beginning, with Noire blasting Dark Black and it working is an homage to the battle against Shabranigdo in Slayers Evolution-R episode 13.


	68. Nightmare's Return

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

This arc's not over yet. Sorry everyone who was thinking we're jumping straight to Planeptune.

* * *

Chapter 60

Grabbing Rom and Ram, Purple Heart smiled at them while Black Void picked up Uni and the force field dissipated. "Good job, both of you." Her smile increased as they hugged her. "I'm so proud of you both. You acted like proper CPUs out there."

"We did?" Rom pulled her head back and smiled as Purple Heart nodded while they descended to the ground. "Ram! We did!"

Ram nodded, smiling at that. "Thank you, big sis."

"No," Purple Heart shook her head, "thank you, both of you. If you two and Uni hadn't been there, I doubt the battle would have gone the way it did."

Not far away, Black Void was carrying Uni down and the younger girl was looking at her nervously. "Um, Noire, was I..?"

"Just stop," Black Void interrupted her, "if you're going to be insecure about your contribution after blowing off the arm of a thirty meter tall giant, then there's nothing that I can do to help your confidence when even I couldn't do that."

Uni's eyes widened and shimmered before she suddenly hugged her sister, who rolled her eyes but shifted her hold so that she was hugging Uni back. 'I'm so sorry that it took me so long to show you this much kindness.'

As they landed on the ground, Purple Heart gasped as she felt her chest throb. "Guh!" She dropped Rom and Ram before falling to her knees and releasing her HDD, returning to her human form. "That... That wasn't good."

"Big sis?" Rom looked at Neptune in worry. "Are you okay?"

"I..." Neptune panted, sweat pouring down her face. "I don't know." For once she wished Kurome would show up and taunt her or something. At least then she'd have a little bit of an idea of what was going on.

When she felt her very being throb again it took everything she had not to throw up right then and there. 'Ugh, this feels really icky.' If she had to try and explain it, the best she could come up with would be that time she ate pudding spiked with eggplant and had an upset stomach for awhile.

"Not surprised you'd be like this." Black Void said as she walked up to Neptune. "You had a bunch of Fearicite energy poured into you and then you had a shard of Fearicite crystal shoved into you. I'm surprised you lasted this long."

Neptune panted and nodded. "I guess that makes sense." She tried smiling, but a pained grimace was what crossed her face instead. "I don't think..."

"NEPTUNA!" Peashy's voice cut off Neptune and she looked up in time to see Peashy flying at her in a flying hug, which she barely caught. "Are you okay?" Peashy asked while hugging Neptune tightly.

Neptune nodded, "just tired, P-Ko. I'll probably need to sleep for a few days and pig out on pudding, but I'll be fine."

"Pudding?" Black Void asked as she reverted back to her human form. "If you're recovering you should probably get some proteins and grains, cheeses as well."

"...But I think pizza would make me sicker." Neptune gave the redhead a confused expression with her eyes screwed shut.

Noire raised an eyebrow. "...Pizza? No, I was thinking maybe some soup and sandwiches. I dunno, what do humans eat when they're sick anyway?"

"I do believe that Lady Noire's idea has merit." Steamax said as he walked up to the group. "Though perhaps a beef stew might be better for regaining energy?"

"...That sounds really good right now." Noire mumbled to herself. "And I'm getting kind of hungry."

"Too bad you won't get the chance to eat." A male voice spoke up as a screen popped up not far from the group. On the screen was Singe, looking at Noire with nothing but hate. "You had to ruin everything, didn't you?"

"So why were you working for Kei?" Noire asked him, "I'm in a mood somewhere between nice and upset, so don't give me any bullshit." She said as she crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes. "After everything else lately, I'm in no mood for bullshit."

"Fine!" Singe yelled and slammed his hands down on the armrest of the chair he was in. "You want to know why I worked with Kei? It's simple. I hate being subservient to anyone. Working with her to help develop weapons for Lastation, the Progbots! The Cybernetic enhancements! The battleships! The C.I.D. itself?!" He grinned at Noire. "It was perfect. I could get into a position and develop weapons to do what I wanted. And for someone who keeps harping on and on about order, you sure are a big hypocrite."

Noire raised an eyebrow. "Because I refused to let you strip people of their free will?"

"Exactly!" Singe yelled at her while throwing his arm to the side. "Your own orders and decrees meant that anyone who wasn't rich, anyone who wasn't living in the upper levels of society would have only three options to live. Work in the factories with a high chance of dying, work for one of the businesses in the slums or become a gang member and risk your anger."

"So?" Noire asked him. "If you had a better solution, I would have loved to have heard it."

"I could have turned all of the dregs of Lastation into loyal cyborg soldiers!" Singe proudly proclaimed. "All of those who are undesirable, who aren't rich or in charge would live as the chosen ones deem it."

"Wow!" Neptune spoke up, "you sound like a bad ruler from a video game who cares more about the ruling the world than his own people." She pointed dramatically at him. "People like you ruin your own nation just so that you can grasp power and control."

"Perhaps," Singe nodded, "but those of us in charge know better than the rest of you what to do."

Noire sighed and rubbed her forehead. "So you're someone who believes in Divine Rights and that you were put in charge by some higher power to lead your lessers, huh?" She pulled her hand down and narrowed her eyes at him. "I tried to be fair and only go after people who were committing obvious crimes, but it seems like I was mistaken. I think I'll come up to the C.I.D. personally and put an end to you."

Singe glared at her before taking a deep breath and chuckling. "Oh no, you don't need to come up here, in fact, Black Void," he sneered at her, "I'll do you a favor and come to you!"

"...I have a feeling, like he's planning something really bad!" Neptune declared as she jumped to her feet and pointed at Singe. "He's already declared himself to be an obvious bad guy! So he's probably got something obviously bad and evil planned!"

"Oh? Bad and evil, like what?" Singe asked as the C.I.D. floated towards them. "This thing has no weapons on it... But then again, I don't suppose I NEED any weapons when this thing can act as a make-shift nuclear bomb."

"WHAT?!" Everyone but Peashy, who didn't really understand what a nuclear bomb was, yelled in shock.

Singe laughed at them. "That's right! I set this thing on a collision course with Lastation! When it crashes into the ground it will explode, taking out most, if not all of Lastation, with it. And all of you worthless CPUs will die along with the very people you're trying to protect!"

"You misunderstand me, Singe," Noire sighed and shook her head, "I hate humans, most of you aren't worth the effort to protect." A black light engulfed her as she transformed back into Black Void, "but I won't let you destroy my nation!"

Singe laughed at her. "And what will you do? You barely have enough power to transform into your Void form! And the C.I.D. can resist everything you've got! You've got nothing!"

Black Void lowered her head, knowing he was right. "Dammit, I..."

"SHUT UP!" Uni yelled, causing Black Void to jerk. "Even if you think it's impossible, we'll find a way to stop this!"

"You'll die trying." Singe countered. "And just what can you do? All the Fearicite was destroyed when the giant was smashed, you're finished!"

Black Void closed her eyes and took a deep breath. As she slowly let it out, she felt something at the edge of her senses. "...All of it, you say?"

"Lady Noire?" Steamax asked, his voice laced with worry.

"Just who do you think I am?" Black Void asked as she snapped her eyes open. "I am the Black Calamity of Lastation! If you think it's impossible, then I'll destroy your odds and show you just how wrong you are!"

"And what will you do?" Singe asked, a smug look on his face. "In the next two minutes all of Lastation will be destroyed, what can you do?"

Black Void glared at him with such intensity that Singe lost his smug look and everyone watched as a wet stain formed on his pants. "I told you, I am the Black Calamity of Lastation... JUST WHO DO YOU THINK I AM?!" She let loose a scream as the air itself started to vibrate and shake.

Suddenly there were lines of black and red energy rushing towards Black Void from where Dark Black had been before pooling in front of Black Void, reforming into a Fearicite Crystal.

"Well..." Neptune muttered softly, "that's convenient." She wasn't sure why the Fearicite did this, but right now, she wasn't going to complain. "Hmm, it's a good thing that Chromey killed Vert, Blanc and Plutie then..." She could only imagine how bad it would have been in Leanbox if Vert had forced her Fearicite Crystal to reform.

The mental image of being tentacled and force-bred with those vile creatures instantly popped into her head. "Eww..."

Black Void ignored Neptune and looked at the Fearicite Crystal. "So you'll give me another chance, huh?" She reached out and took the Fearicite Crystal into her hands as she was bathed with a red light. "Fine. Then let's smash our enemies one last time."

When the light faded, Black Nightmare stood there in all her glory. Smirking at the group, she let loose a howl and leaped into the air, zipping towards the C.I.D. at high speeds.

"Good luck." Uni, Steamax and Neptune all said at the same time while Peashy, Rom and Ram watched on.

(-)

As she raced through the air towards the C.I.D., Black Nightmare closed her eyes as the words of her elder sister came back to her.

_"Noire, you're too soft-hearted."_ Sapphire Void's words rang through her mind. _"You have too much kindness and compassion in you to become a Void. And even if you did, you'd never obtain your nightmare form."_

"But I did, sister." Black Nightmare whispered softly. "And I did it _my_ way." For a brief moment, she thought she saw her long-dead sister's face smiling proudly at her.

It didn't take her long to get above the skyscrapers as the C.I.D. got closer. "I'll stop you, here and now, Singe. And after I'm done with you I'll hunt down Mr. Badd and Anonydeath and rend them both from reality!" Focusing her power, she glowed brightly and zipped straight towards the bridge of the C.I.D., flying right at the main window and into the ship, smirking as she saw Singe's terrified face while he threw up his hands and screamed in fear as her clawed hands ripped through the space where his chest, spine and head were a moment ago.

Standing on the bridge of the C.I.D., Black Nightmare nodded. "This is pretty nice." She looked around for the main controls of the C.I.D. and sighed as she saw that her entrance onto the bridge of the ship had not only destroyed the main console, but several other consoles and the main chair that Singe had been sitting on had several more switches and buttons that had been shattered. "Well, fuck." Turning, Black Nightmare bent over so that her hands were on the ground, as was her feet, her butt high in the air as she ran forward on all fours. "Guess I'll need to go destroy the main reactor so this thing doesn't explode on the ground then."

As she ran, her face slowly turned more and more red. "Why do I feel like there's a bunch of perverts staring at my bare ass as I'm running right now?"

It didn't take her long to smash through a few doors and floors to get to the reactor and grimace as there was an actual energy field around the thing, preventing her from getting too close. "Man, you really thought of everything huh?" Black Nightmare muttered, though she wasn't surprised. After all, Singe had been behind most of the weapons manufacturing in Lastation.

Swaying side to side as she stood to her full height, Black Nightmare closed her eyes and took a deep breath as sirens went off, warning her about the approaching self-destruct and that she had to leave or be destroyed in the explosion. "Uni... Steamax... If I don't make it out of this," she whispered to herself before shaking her head, "no!" Her eyes started to glow as she held up a hand and a black bubble formed around her outstretched palm while energy tendrils spun and unraveled, revealing a black energy blade. "I WILL get out of this."

Red energy formed around the blade as the air crackled. "No matter what..." She held her sword high in the sky with both hands. "I WILL WIN!"

**"Thirty seconds until self-destruct."**

Black Nightmare let out a scream as she slashed down with all her might, all of reality seemingly being cut at that same moment. "Let me show you my Nightmare EXE move! Kei! Singe! Watch from the grave as I finish this!" Her eyes glowed brightly as she cut down. "RENDING BLADE!"

The attack cut through the barriers and into the reactor, causing a chain reaction that caused it to explode and engulf everything in the room, including Noire, who merely chuckled as she was engulfed in the explosion.

To be continued...

* * *

Noire, why do you have the Ragna Blade from Slayers as your Nightmare form EXE attack?


	69. Explosion

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Not even my beta reader has read this chapter. I've kept this one pretty tightly closed up.

* * *

Chapter 61

Everyone watched as the C.I.D. suddenly started to erupt in the air as explosions came quickly, uncontrolled and loudly across its body.

When the large airship itself exploded into a fiery ball of destruction, people cheered loudly as the explosion was far enough away that nothing in Lastation would be harmed.

Well, nothing that wasn't hit by falling molten metal and shrapnel that is.

"Where's Noire..?" Uni asked, trembling. "She... She... She's not dead, right?"

Steamax said nothing as he scanned the air. "Lady Uni!" He gasped in amazement. "I see her, it's Lady Noire, but... Oh no!"

"What?" Uni and Neptune asked at the same time.

"She's in her human form and falling," Steamax didn't say anything more as he rushed to the nearest flying vehicle, which happened to be a bike and jumped on before rushing off into the sky.

"Man, it's a good thing that didn't give him any problems, like not starting up, because that would make for a really bad plot twist." Neptune said as she watched Steamax become a dot in the sky.

"Save Noire, Steamax..." Uni muttered softly. "Save her, please?"

(-)

Less than two minutes later...

"Lady Noire!" Steamax called out as he maneuvered his stolen bike into position and caught the falling CPU. "You're... Lady Noire!" He couldn't keep the shock out of his voice as he saw her.

The fact that her clothes were in tatters barely registered as he saw her cracked and burned skin, the blood coming out of her mouth and the look of pure pain on her face.

"Who..." Noire cracked an eye open. "Who's there? My vision's kind of blurry and I'm having a hard time hearing right now." Her voice was soft, sore and dry.

"It's me, Lady Noire, Steamax!" The ninja said as he settled onto the bike and quickly flew down to the ground.

"Stea...max?" Noire asked softly as she raised a trembling hand up to gently touch his face. "I never built you to fly, how are you doing this?"

"Even if you chained me to a mountain, I would find a way to escape and come to your aid when you need me, Lady Noire." Steamax said to her. "Please relax, I will get you to the Basilicom and heal you..."

"Take me to Uni." Noire told him, her voice solid.

"But..." Steamax began before sighing as he realized why she wanted to go to Uni. "I truly am sorry that I wasn't there."

"I won't let you die again because of me." Noire's voice was hoarse as she coughed. Lowering her arm, she shivered softly. "I'm so sorry, Steamax," she whispered and trembled.

"Hang on, Lady Noire, we're almost to where Lady Uni is. Please stay with me."

It took less than a minute to return to where Uni, Neptune, Rom, Ram and Peashy were located, Steamax noted, however, that several others, the one known as Chrome, her sister Filyn, the blonde girl, her rat friend and the blue-haired bunny girl all joined Neptune and formed a loose circle around Steamax as he landed and gently picked Noire up and put her down on the grass.

"NOIRE!" Uni cried out and grabbed her sister's hands. "Noire!" Her eyes started to water up. "You..."

"Not dead yet..." Noire coughed, her voice coming out very pained as she opened her eyes to look at her sister. "Uni..." She slid her hand up to cup Uni's face. "Become a good CPU for Lastation..." Noire shivered as it became harder to breathe. "I... I wanted to spend time together... To play games or just watch a movie." Noire looked at Neptune, "you..."

"Noire?" Neptune asked and knelt down next to the redhead, "what?"

"Take care of Uni..." She felt her eyes closing. "I don't want her to become a Void. Let her become a CPU with a... Heart..."

"Of course!" Neptune smiled at Noire and grabbed her other hand. "I wanted to stop her from becoming a Void anyway."

Noire smiled at that and trembled. "...Steamax... I'm so... So sorry... To leave you alone... Look... After... Uni... For me... And... Uni..." Her eyes closed completely as she took a few more shuddering breaths. "Don't... Hate... Humans... I did... That enough... And... I love you... Little sister."

With one last gasp, Noire sighed and relaxed as her body shut down. The injuries she had taken in the explosion finally took their toll on her body as her body dissolved and a red beam of light erupted upwards into the sky, leaving nothing but the Fearicite Crystal behind.

Noire, the CPU of Lastation, also known as Black Void, the Black Calamity of Lastation and Black Nightmare, was no more.

"...Noire..?" Uni whimpered as she watched the Fearicite Crystal fall to the ground, bouncing with a soft ting. "...Noire?" Her eyes started to water up as she grasped at the space that her sister had been a moment before. "NOIRE!" She cried out to the heavens, tears falling from her eyes as she openly cried. "NO! YOU CAN'T! WAAAAHHH! NOIRE!"

There was a small flash of light and the next thing she knew, a pair of warm arms were wrapped around her and her face was pressed against something soft and warm. Looking up, she saw Purple Heart giving her a sad look. "Go ahead, Uni," Purple Heart said, tears falling out of her eyes as she wrapped her arms around the grieving CPU Candidate, "let out all your pain and sadness."

Uni sniffled once as her eyes teared up again before she buried her face into Purple Heart's chest and crying loudly and shuddering while the CPU rubbed her back and let her cry her heart and soul out.

After waiting several minutes, which allowed Uni's sobs to taper off slowly, Linda spoke up. "I don't get it, why was she like that? I thought that Black Void would be like the other Voids."

Purple Heart tightened her hug on Uni when she felt the younger girl tense up. While rubbing Uni's back and whispering soothing things to her, she spoke up. "Even where I'm from, there are good humans," mental images of IF, Compa, Marvy, CC2, B-Sha and her other human friends popped into her mind as she spoke, "and bad humans," images of Linda from her dimension popped into her head, as did Anonydeath, "good CPUs," images of her CPU friends from her dimension, Yellow Heart, and the other Ultradimension CPUs, plus the candidates all flooded her mind, "and bad CPUs," memories of Rei Ryghts, Kurome and even CFW Magic appeared in her mind at that moment, "and just like them, there are good monsters and bad ones..." She looked down at Uni, who shifted and looked up at her with tears flowing out of her eyes. "And just like all of them... There are bad Voids that do nothing but bring harm to everyone around them..." She smiled at Uni, "and good Voids, who act bad, but do what they can to help others."

"That sounds like Lady Noire," Steamax nodded and jerked softly as Purple Heart looked at him and slowly let go of Uni. "Yes?" He asked as Purple Heart walked up to him.

"...I made a promise, on my life, that I would make sure that Noire would come back alive." She told him. "I failed."

Everyone stared at Purple Heart in shock, though Chrome was the fastest to recover. "You idiot!" She ran forward and grabbed Purple Heart, turning her body. "Don't throw your life away because you're feeling guilty! We still need you!"

"But..."

"You did," Steamax interrupted Purple Heart, "promise to bring her back alive, this is true."

"Steamax!" Uni gasped in horror. "You can't..."

"And you did just that." Steamax interrupted her, causing everyone to gasp and Purple Heart to stare at him in shock, "you promised to bring her home alive from fighting the giant." He then knelt down and bowed to Purple Heart, "for that, I thank you, from the bottom of my programming and for what passes for my heart."

Purple Heart smiled at him. "Thank..." Her eyes widened as her body throbbed painfully. "NNNGH!"

"Neptune?!" Chrome called out as Purple Heart released her HDD and returned to her human form before passing out. "Quickly! We need to get her in the Basilicom!"

"Allow me," Steamax said as he picked Neptune up, "I know where the facilities for healing her will be located and I can move the fastest." Chrome nodded to him and in a flash he was gone.

Chrome looked at where Noire had been and sighed as she saw the Fearicite Crystal still laying there. Every aspect of her being was telling her to destroy it, but seeing Uni crying while kneeling near it, she sighed and found herself unable to do so. 'Not yet, she just lost someone she loved.' Which was a shocker to her, that anyone could love a Void. 'No, stop it, Chrome. Black Void wasn't a Void like the other three were, she was as much of a Heart as Neptune is, she just had to use negative emotions to power herself.' Turning, she looked at Gust. "Do you have a glass beaker and a stopper?" Gust nodded and Chrome motioned towards the Fearicite. "Be a dear and put it in there, will you?"

"What are you going to do with it?" Uni asked as she slowly reached for the Fearicite Crystal and found herself unable to move as several wires wrapped around her arms. "HEY!"

"First of all, don't touch it. Secondly, I don't plan on doing anything to it right now." Uni gave her a confused look as Gust came over and put the Fearicite Crystal into the glass beaker and then put the stopper over it. Chrome released the wires and sighed softly. "I won't take away the last bit of your sister from you." Uni's eyes widened and she trembled softly.

"She..." Uni sniffled and looked up as Chrome knelt down next to her and smiled softly.

"She was a true CPU, just rough around the edges." Chrome pulled Uni into a soft hug. "Deep down, she still cared about something and that's why she's a true CPU. It's our jobs to protect the people of our lands, which is what she did. You should be proud of her."

"I am." Uni whispered as tears fell from her eyes. "I'll always be proud of her."

Chrome smiled softly and stood up while offering Uni a hand up. "Come on, we need to go make sure that Neptune is okay."

Taking the hand, Uni nodded in thanks as she got to her feet. "...Who... Who is she?"

Chrome was about to answer that when another person spoke up. "Big sis Neptune is the best." Rom said, causing Uni to look at her. "She saved me and Ram when we needed her. She saved Peashy. She tried to save you and your sister." The short-haired girl looked down sadly. "I... I don't like Voids, but your sister wasn't a bad person."

Uni took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "...We can talk more later, we need to check on your sister." Rom nodded at that, worried about Neptune and also hoping that Uni would be okay after everything was all said and done.

(-)

As he burst into the medical room that was only sporadically used, Steamax placed Neptune onto one of the med beds and quickly booted up the system to scan and look Neptune over. "Curses, I only have a basic idea of what these systems are for."

"Really, Steamboy," a voice caused the ninja to stiffen and spin around as the air distorted, revealing a familiar pink armor, "trying to do something beyond your programming?"

"You!" Steamax spun and took a stance. "You caused harm to the CPU Candidates! It was because of that..."

"Yes, I know," Anonydeath nodded at him, "as of right now, however, I'm your best bet to save that CPU's life." He tilted to the side to see Neptune's face grow paler with each moment while her breathing got more and more shallow. "It looks to me that she won't last too much longer."

"And I should trust you, why?" The ninja asked as he detached his ninja star.

"You shouldn't," Anonydeath told him bluntly, "but unless you want her to die or something worse, you need me to work on her."

Steamax stared at him for nearly a minute before he nodded and reattached his ninja star. "Be warned, I'm watching you."

"Of course," Anonydeath said as he held his hands up. "If you'll excuse me." He said as he floated over to where Neptune was and started to work the scanners and other devices to see what he could do to help her.

Several minutes later, there was a loud scream and Anonydeath turned to see Uni glaring at him with her guns pointed at him. "Oh yeah, you wouldn't be happy to see me, would you?"

"What are you doing to her?" Uni snarled while everyone behind her looked at Anonydeath with varying degrees of distrust and anger.

"Get away from big sis Neptune!" Both Rom and Ram yelled at him while magic started to fill the air.

Sighing dramatically, Anonydeath shook his head. "Sure, go ahead, take away the one person who can help you right now. I'm sure that watching your beloved big sister suffer right now is what you want." He held up a hand, "and before you ask why you should trust me," he shrugged and looked back at Neptune and the scans before nodding, "well, she'll be okay for a little while. Do you want to know why you have no choice but to trust me?" Turning to look back at the group, he scratched his chin. "Actually, it would be best if there were fewer people here. I don't like being interrupted." He sighed when he saw none of them were moving. "Alright, I guess since no one will move," he moved into a sitting position and most everyone was surprised when he sat on the air. "Anti-gravity seats are the most comfortable, I find."

"...You sound familiar." Compa spoke up, "why do you..."

"AH! The cutie that I made new arms for!" Anonydeath waved at her happily. "How are your arms working out for you?"

"AH!" Compa's eyes widened and she pointed at him, her fingers shaking. "You're that nice, handsome weirdo that gave me my arms!"

"Weirdo?" Anonydeath asked, his voice sounding sulky and whiny. "That's so mean! Anyway!" He huffed, ignoring any further comments from Compa and spoke to the others. "So, while you were all captured, being poked, prodded and experimented on," he mentally sighed at the looks of anger from the CPU Candidates and the older CPU and continued to speak, "I was gathering data on CPUs. It's quite interesting, considering that you," he pointed at Chrome, "you," he pointed at Filyn, "and her," he jerked a thumb at Neptune, "are not Voids, but some other type of CPU, Hearts, I believe that one calls herself?"

"Yes." Chrome told him. "What does this have to do with anything?"

"I'm getting to it, sheesh," he huffed in annoyance, "well, that specific part was just allowing you to know that I have data that's pertinent to this situation. Now, there's some actual information you should know that concerns Kei, Gernia G. and myself."

"What?" Uni asked, barely holding herself back from pulling her rifle out and blasting Anonydeath's head off. "What connection do you have to those two monsters?!"

Anonydeath sighed and shook his head. "Well, I won't deny that Gernia G. was a monster, even back when she wasn't as bad as she got, she was still pretty bad."

"What do you mean?" Chrome asked, confusion in her voice and on her face.

"Well, see, Kei wasn't the only slave that Noire freed." Anonydeath told them as he pointed to himself. "Kei was like a little sister to me while we were slaves." He held up his hands and shook his head. "Please, I know that she went off the deep end, but she was a cute kid when we were small. In the aftermath I lost track of her and I fell into Gernia G.'s hands. She's actually the reason I was able to learn cybernetics and power armors."

"What?" Chrome spoke up, "you're going to tell us that Gernia G. was actually very kind or something in the past?"

"Huh?" Anonydeath tilted his head in confusion. "Oh! No. She was always someone who would gladly peel the skin on your stomach away just to see how your organs worked in real time while commenting over how she hated waiting for coffee to cook properly." Turning to look at the screen, he sighed and looked back at the group. "But there was a sense to her, back then, that she'd only do something like that if it was needed, if it would advance science and medicine. She single-handedly advanced medicine and science in Lastation by over a century, you see."

"Impressive," Chrome said, her voice bored, "can you get to the point?"

Anonydeath sighed and nodded, "well, while I was working for Gernia G., suddenly Kei pops up into the lab and I couldn't believe it was her. She was a sweet kid, someone who was timid, eager to please and shy. In fact, she genuinely was grateful for being freed by Noire at the time. However, when I saw her again, she was assertive, dominant and kind of scary. I don't know what changed at first. I know now it's because she took control of rival gangs and became a leader among them. It toughened her up. Sadly, somewhere along the way, she lost herself."

"And so she recruited Gernia G. and you to undermine my sister and take over Lastation?" Uni asked, snarling at Anonydeath, who nodded to her. "HOW DARE YOU!?"

"I was only in it to find out just what the hell was going on." Anonydeath told her. "Gernia G. worked for Kei until your sister declared her a criminal and then she disappeared for awhile. The next time I saw her, and I found her only a few months after she disappeared, she had changed." He shook his head. "She became so crazy that... Oh!" Anonydeath made a fist with his left hand and slapped it into his open right hand. "That reminds me, Uni-dear, you may want to have a scan of yourself done. You don't know what Gernia G. put into you."

"I'll take care of that," Steamax told them, getting a nod from Uni. "Continue with your story. Why did you undermine Lady Noire?"

Anonydeath sighed heavily. "I wasn't trying to, directly, undermine her. I was trying to find out why Kei had become the way she did. Even knowing her backstory, there were just details that didn't add up. Why was she so obsessed with the Fearicite and why did she consider Noire to be a failure? Heck, she often called Noire an idiot when she wasn't around." He shook his head and sighed before looking back at Neptune's status screen. "It's almost like... It's almost like something was possessing her, but I can't prove anything."

"Possessing her..?" Chrome muttered softly as her pupils shrank. "...If it could corrupt Neptune... And Kei did use it to... FUCK!" Chrome suddenly screamed, causing everyone to jerk and Anonydeath to fall out of the air and to the ground with a painful thud.

"Owwies! Hey! Sister! Warn me the next time you scream like that." Anonydeath grumbled as he stood up. "My metal frame is solid as heck, but I bruise easily."

"Kei was able to reform the Fearicite after she shattered it," Chrome spoke softly as the big picture started to come together, "she also modified it so that anyone could use it..." Chrome's face paled as she realized the implications of what was going on. "The Fearicite possessed Kei and manipulated her into doing the things she did." She didn't know if that was true or not, since her brain was seemingly working on overtime, but if it was then... "If that thing can influence people into behaving like actual Voids, then it can potentially influence anyone..." Her face went stark white at the prospect. "...No one is safe."

"...FUCK!" The fact that those words came out of Compa's mouth caused more than a few people to jerk in surprise.

To be continued...

* * *

So, in case anyone forgot, when a CPU that's in a stage higher than their normal HDD form uses that form's exclusive EXE attack, they burn up all the energy they have and return to their human forms.

Noire in her human form, being consumed by a nuclear-class explosion point-blank, you think she'd survive that?


	70. Parting Message

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 62

Chrome looked at Gust and nodded. "We need to destroy that thing." While that had been the plan originally anyway, the new information changed things quite a bit. 'Who knew that Fearicite could do this to regular people?'

Chrome paused at that thought and thought back to her time in Lowee and how people not only hated White Void, but also Rom and Ram. 'Even I hated them, were we influenced by Fearicite all this time?'

Her thoughts then turned to Leanbox and how the people there seemed to have no problem with how Green Void had a breeding program set up to get the most physically desirable traits for her citizens and would send people who were too old for her tastes to the tentacle breeding pits after they were no longer capable of having children and how people, if they were scarred would either be bred with tentacles or be forced to churn out children as rapidly as possible.

Her pupils shrank as more and more behavior that didn't make sense became more and more obvious to her as she thought about it. "I can't believe this, we've all been influenced by this thing for the past sixty years?!"

"Chromey?" Filyn was confused. "What do you mean?"

"After the Fearicite in Lowee was shattered by Neptune, the people quickly started to warm up to Rom and Ram," Chrome answered her, "I thought it was just because of how White Void had been for years and with White Void being dead and Neptune watching over them the people would give them a chance, but now..." She trailed off as her mind wouldn't stop spinning at these revelations.

"You think we've been influenced by Fearicite since we were born?" Linda asked, getting a nod from Chrome. "Wait, but IF has a real beef with Voids due to what happened to her and..."

"Gust gets it," Gust nodded, interrupting Linda, "Gust and IF and Linda all trusted Neptune easily. Even when Neptune said she was a CPU, we only thought she was a Void. IF hates CPUs because she was burned, but she still puts faith in Neptune."

"Because Neptune is the only one who can stop the Voids." Linda protested, though she wondered if that was just a justification on IF's part or if maybe that was what her girlfriend truly believed.

"What..?" Neptune asked as she panted on the bed while cracking an eye open. "Is all the noise?"

Compa looked at Neptune and looked around at the room. "Oh what the heck?!" She pushed past Steamax and grabbed some equipment off of the walls, including a breathing mask and put it over Neptune's nose and mouth. "Breathe, Nep Nep," she looked at Anonydeath and Steamax, "is this thing set up to let her breathe?"

Anonydeath tapped a few buttons on the console, "it is now. There's some chemical in the oxygen tank that will help numb the pain and make things better for her."

"You do realize, Mr. Robot," Compa spoke to him, "if something bad happens to Nep Nep while she's here..."

"That I won't live to see the weekend?" Anonydeath asked rhetorically, "sister, you don't need to tell me that. And there's something I need to ask you," he nodded to Chrome, "don't you think you're over-thinking things a little bit?" He sighed at the looks of confusion he was getting. "Look, I have no doubt that the Fearicite was probably influencing the people to dislike Voids to keep them powered up, but isn't it just as likely that the people went along with their situations because they thought it was normal?" Chrome gave him a confused look and he sighed. "Former slave here, girlfriend, remember?"

Chrome felt her cheeks go slightly red. "I'm not your girlfriend."

Anonydeath laughed at her. "Well anyway, as a child slave I thought it was pretty normal to live like I did until I was freed by Black Void. Now, let's say that you're right, that the Fearicite was influencing people. What if it was just enhancing what the people felt so that they'd be more likely to hate the CPUs and the Candidates since that's what Fearicite is powered by? And either way, you have no proof one way or the other."

Chrome sighed and nodded as she slowly started to calm down. "Perhaps. Yes, you're probably right. Maybe Kei became the way she did because she was working with the Fearicite directly?"

"Plus sis wasn't a bad person, even as a Void." Uni said, her voice soft as she looked at Gust. "...But in case you're right, that Fearicite can influence and corrupt people, that Fearicite Crystal needs to be destroyed."

Seeing Uni tremble, Gust sighed heavily. "Do you want to do it?" Uni jerked in surprise. "Gust knows that you loved your sister."

Uni nodded and felt her eyes water up. "Y...Yeah, I'll..."

"Don't do it in here!" Both Compa and Anonydeath yelled at the same time, causing Uni to jerk in surprise. On the bed, Neptune moaned in pain while Compa undid the CPU's jacket to get sensors directly onto her body to scan her.

"I wasn't going to." Uni answered. "I'll... I'll go." She sighed and walked off with Gust following after her.

Rom and Ram looked at each other and nodded before running after Uni. They were followed by Linda and Peashy, who was urged out by Filyn, who followed after them.

"Well, that'll make it easier to work on this." Anonydeath said and looked at Steamax. "Well, Steamboy, aren't you going to follow after Uni-dear?"

"Lady Uni will be fine for now." Steamax told him, "I have faith that she'll do what's right. As for you," his eyes seemed to narrow as he looked at Anonydeath. "I'll be watching you closely."

Anonydeath sighed and shook his head. "Well, whatever." As the sensors gathered data, he looked over it and tilted his head as he looked it over. There was interesting data that was popping up on the screen, but it ultimately didn't tell him anything until he was able to fully analyze it.

(-)

On the top floor of the Basilicom...

Standing in front of an open window, Uni looked at the lightly pulsating Fearicite Crystal in the tube that she was holding. "...Noire," her voice was soft and trembling, "I love you, I miss you... Please, I don't want to forget you." Her body trembled as she threw the tube and Fearicite Crystal into the air before pulling out her energy rifle and blasting it into oblivion. "I did it..." She whispered softly before dropping her gun and sinking to her knees while burying her face into her hands and crying. "N...NOIRE! WHY?!"

She only cried for a few moments before she felt a soft pair of arms wrap around her from behind. Lowering her hands, she looked behind her tearfully as she saw Rom smiling at her. "R...Rom?"

"It's okay." Rom turned Uni to face her and she hugged the grieving girl. "It's okay to cry." Uni returned the hug and Ram got behind Uni and hugged her too. "If Big Sis Neptune died, I'd be crying my head off too."

"Uh huh," Ram said while hugging the crying girl, "so it's okay to cry."

Suddenly another body joined in and Uni shifted to see Peashy hugging her and smiling up at her. "...Thank you." Uni sniffled as she wiped her tears and let go of the hug.

"Gust knows that must have been hard," Gust spoke up as she and Linda walked up to them, "but Gust knows that if you only focus on your pain, it will hurt worse."

"You know," Linda tapped her chin, "your sister was pretty unusual, right?" Uni nodded, sniffling. "Well," Linda motioned to some chairs around a table, "why don't you tell us about her?"

Uni jerked in surprise and looked at Linda weirdly.

"Besides," Rom smiled at Uni, "I'd like to know what a good Void was like."

"Sure," Uni smiled while tears fell down her face. "And thank you."

Rom just smiled back at her.

(-)

Hours later...

"Well..?" Chrome asked as she and Compa looked at Anonydeath. Steamax had left to check on Uni and get her scanned to make sure that there was nothing wrong with her.

"Well what?" Anonydeath asked her, sighing at the look he was given. "Well, if you want to know, her life signs are strong, but erratic."

"Typically that's not a good thing." Compa pointed out. "They'd be better if they were stable." She looked at the nude CPU, who had a sheet over her body as the diodes that they had placed directly onto her body to scan her while she rested...

...Or rather, tried to rest. Her face was in obvious pain and she was taking short, shallow breaths and Compa hated how there was nothing she could do for Neptune.

"Well..." Anonydeath began and looked at Neptune, sighing as he turned away from her. "I have a question for you." He asked while looking at Chrome. "How important is it to you that she lives?"

"There's still one more nation we need to go to," Chrome told him, "without Neptune, we can't go." She looked at Neptune and sighed heavily. "And even more... She's someone who's important to me."

"Alright," Anonydeath nodded and pulled up a screen before pulling out a collar. "I'm thinking that she's reacting to the Fearicite was directly injected into her, so if we cut off her access to it..."

"But that would leave her powerless!" Compa protested and Anonydeath looked at her.

"Sister, I know that, but right now that might be what she needs so she can recover."

"How does it work?" Chrome asked as she looked at how Neptune was pale, sweating and trembling on the bed and realized that if nothing was done, then she would lose Neptune.

"It sends a signal that interferes with Fearicite energy." Anonydeath told her. "It might help."

Chrome looked at him, her eyes went to the collar and then she looked at Neptune and her eyes softened. "...Do it." She and Compa both watched as Anonydeath fastened the collar around Neptune's neck. "So now..?" She trailed off as Neptune's breathing became easier, though she remained pale and sweaty.

"Thought so," Anonydeath nodded and looked back at the data screens as he saw Neptune's life signs stabilize. "So it was the Fearicite that was causing such a reaction in her." Turning, he started to walk out. "Well, unless there's a massively bad reaction, I think I'll leave and let her relax. We can adjust the collar later or modify another one so that she'll be able to transform into her HDD form."

"Why are you being so helpful?" Chrome asked him, grateful that Neptune looked like she would be okay.

Anonydeath looked at Chrome and sighed before tapping a button on the side of his neck, causing his helmet to slide back and reveal his face.

Chrome was rather shocked at how handsome Anonydeath looked under his helmet and found herself blushing softly. "Well?"

"...Because," he told her, "I thought of Kei as a little sister. Isn't it the job of the older brother to make sure that his little sister stayed safe?" He looked at Neptune and then back to Chrome. "She went down the wrong path, she convinced me, Mr. Badd and the others that her idea was the best. Allow me to fix my mistakes."

"Speaking of mistakes..." Chrome began and the next thing Anonydeath knew, he was flat on his back with Chrome stepping on him from above. "What you did to my little sister and the other CPU Candidates..."

Anonydeath sweat-dropped heavily as his helmet shifted back over his face, covering him back up. "Listen, girlfriend, some guys like being stepped on by a hot woman like you."

"I'm well aware." Chrome told him. "Don't tell me you're one of them."

"...Wear a tiny miniskirt while you step on me and I might be." Anonydeath chuckled nervously at the look he was given. "Hey, you asked."

"I have to wonder, just why shouldn't I do something like break parts of your body off?" Chrome asked him, her eyes narrowed at him. "You brainwashed my sister, the other CPU Candidates, and turned them against us."

"...I'm the only one who can help her?" Anonydeath suggested and jerked his head towards Neptune. "In fact, I can make it so she can transform without worrying about the Fearicite." Chrome raised an eyebrow out of curiosity and Anonydeath continued, "thanks to the data I got on your sister and her, I can filter most, if not all, the Fearicite so she can just draw upon whatever that other energy is."

Chrome narrowed her eyes and removed her foot from Anonydeath. "You better not be lying."

"I wouldn't live to see the weekend if I was." Anonydeath told her.

(-)

In another room...

Uni was blushing softly as doctors worked on her body. "I wish I didn't have to sit here in just my underwear."

"We're almost done." One of the doctors said as the scans finished up on her. "Thankfully we have information on your body before Gernia G. started to work on you. So we can compare your current state to your previous state."

"Lucky me." Uni muttered, not sure if she should be grateful that bitch had done that or not.

"And done." The doctor said as the scans finished up. "You can get dressed now. We'll send this data to the right people and get back to you as quickly as we can."

Uni nodded and put her clothes back on, glad to not be exposing so much of herself. Sure, they were doctors, but she was still a girl, dang it! After getting dressed and adjusting her clothes properly, she left the room behind and walked out, stopping as she saw Steamax leaning against the wall next to the door. "You didn't need to wait."

"I already failed to protect your sister, Lady Uni." Steamax told her. "I refuse to fail again."

"...Steamax..." Uni sighed, her eyes watering up. "Please, can... I..."

"Let us go to the upper floors first, so you can regain your composure." Steamax told her and she nodded as the two made their way over to one of the lifts to take them up to the upper floors.

As they went up, Steamax nodded to Uni. "It's okay to vent your emotions." He watched as Uni sank to the floor and buried her face into her legs. He said nothing and let her quietly cry until they got to the top floors. "We're here."

Uni nodded and stood up, wiping her eyes. "I'm sorry, I..."

"You have nothing to apologize over." Steamax told her. "Grief when someone you deeply care for perishes is common."

The two walked out of the lift and found their way into the main office that Noire used to work out of. Sniffling, Uni pushed her way in.

A sudden scream made Uni look up in shock as her vision became filled with someone falling her way. "WAGH!" Both Uni and the person cried out at the same time as there was a squishing and a splat sound as Uni found herself on her back with Ram sitting on her face.

"Gust told you not to play on the desk." The bunny girl had an amused look on her face as Steamax lifted Ram off of Uni, who was laying on the ground and twitching. "Are you okay? Gust knows that flying butts to the face is not fun."

Uni twitched and sat up, giving the long-haired girl a glowering look. "What are you all doing in here anyway?!"

"Pea found something!" Peashy yelled as she lifted what looked like a small cube out of the bottom desk drawer.

"Be careful with that." Steamax said as he put Ram down and ran to Peashy, who ran away from him while laughing. "Give that back, you don't know what that can do!"

"But Pea wants to know!" Peashy ran around the room in a circle with Steamax following after her.

"I'm sorry," Ram gave Uni a shy look. "I was playing around on the desk and I slipped on a pen and fell backwards."

Uni sighed and found that she couldn't be mad at the other girl. She noticed Rom and the green-haired girl and the large rat in one corner of the office looking through some photos and just shook her head. "It's fine. I didn't say you couldn't come in here. I just wish that I had gotten to come into big sis's office first and..."

"Got you!" Steamax grabbed Peashy and picked her up. "Please stop struggling, I do not wish to hurt you."

"Put Pea down!" Peashy yelled and threw the cube in her hands to the ground, where it suddenly beeped, glowed a light blue and a holographic image appeared in the middle of the room.

"It..." Uni stared in shock, her eyes watering up.

"Can't be." Steamax finished as he dropped Peashy in shock, who sat on the ground while staring at the image. "Lady Noire?!"

_"Hello, Uni."_ Noire said, a somber look on her face. _"If you're seeing this recording, that means that I'm dead and you're likely a Void now. If that's the case, I'm truly sorry. I never wanted that for you. If I died some other way and you're not a Void, then I'm thankful."_

"Noire..." Uni whispered softly and reached a trembling hand to her sister's hologram. When her hand passed through the image, she found her eyes tearing up again.

_"I want you to know, even if you became a Void, I'm proud of you."_ Noire's face softened up. _"I want you to become a good, proud ruler of Lastation. I'm sorry that we didn't get to spend more time together, I really am. I wanted to do things with you. Go out to eat, play some games... Stuff like that. That's what people do, right?"_ She sighed softly. _"I wish I knew how I died, but if it was to treachery, I want you to know this, Uni, don't fall to the same trap I did. Please?"_ Noire took a deep breath and let it out. _"If I never said it while I was alive, I love you, little sister. I always have. I'm sorry that I never got to tell you when I was alive."_

Uni's eyes filled with tears and she sniffled as she heard those words. "Noire... You told me." She smiled at the hologram. "So, please, don't..."

_"It's almost time."_ Noire sighed. _"If you want to remember me, well..."_ She scratched her cheek. _"I was always partial to black roses. And, please, Uni... Become a good CPU for Lastation. Do that so I can rest easy, okay?"_

The hologram disappeared and Uni scrambled to the cube and picked it up, cradling it against her body. "I promise, Noire." Uni sobbed softly. "I...I'll become a good CPU for Lastation."

It was the least she could do for her sister.

To be continued...

* * *

If you're wondering, the Fearicite will be explained later.


	71. Office

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

I changed the cover image for the fic. Artwork is by Shiena. Thank you so much.

* * *

Chapter 63

As consciousness slowly came back to her, Neptune opened her eyes and found that she was really comfortable. "What time..?"

"It's really early." A soft voice made her jerk and she rolled her body slightly and found herself blushing as she realized the position she was in. "Welcome back." Chrome smiled down at her.

"Um..." Neptune had an embarrassed look on her face. "How did I end up getting a lap pillow from you?" She had to admit, Chrome's thighs felt really comfortable and... "Wait, are you not wearing pants?"

"I sleep in my underwear." Chrome told her. "You were looking uncomfortable with that pillow, so I moved a bed in here, put it next to yours and put your head on my lap. You calmed down and fell into a deep sleep."

"Oh, um... Thank you." Neptune smiled at her and blinked as she realized she felt Chrome's hand running through her hair. "Um... Chromey?"

"Just helping you relax." Chrome told her. "How are you feeling?"

"A bit better. Sore everywhere..." Neptune closed her eyes and rolled over, pressing her face against Chrome's legs. "...Chrome... I'm scared."

Chrome rubbed Neptune's back. "We put one of those power suppressor collars around your neck." Neptune nodded and trembled. "I promise you, Neptune, you won't become a Void." Neptune shifted and Chrome could feel her sobbing softly into her legs. "Neptune, it's..."

"I failed to save someone who wasn't a bad person, Chrome." Neptune whimpered. "I keep failing. I failed to save Plutie's sister. I failed to save Noire. And the bad guys brainwashed all our sisters because I couldn't keep fighting and now I'm turning into a Void and..."

Neptune found herself lifted up and her face pressed into Chrome's chest while the elder CPU hugged her softly, whispering to her softly while letting her softly cry.

"You're wrong, Neptune." Chrome said to her while letting her cry. "You haven't failed. You saved Rom and Ram, you stopped White Void, you saved Peashy, you stopped Green Void and you stopped Iris Void."

"But what about..?" Neptune lifted her tear-streaked face to look at Chrome. "What if I get to Planeptune and there's a Nepgear there that's being abused? Or worse, what if she's already a Void?"

"You can't get bogged down by "what if" and "if only", Neptune." Chrome had a somber look on her face. "That path leads to doubt, depression and feelings of suicide."

"...Chrome?" Neptune blinked a few times as Chrome shifted and hugged her again. "Chrome?"

"Don't fall down the path I did, Neptune." Chrome told her while trembling. "If I hadn't gone down that path, maybe the world would be better off." She felt Neptune hug her back. "Please..." Chrome whispered to her. "You're too important to everyone... Don't give into the Fearicite."

Neptune hiccuped once before crying again, this time Chrome felt herself following along.

'How odd,' Chrome thought while smiling and feeling her eyes burning, 'I thought I cried all my tears away years ago.' And yet, holding Neptune, she couldn't help but cry for the CPU. 'I wish I could go HDD freely.' While Steamax had said he'd get her staff back for her, she really needed to regain her HDD form.

'Not for me or my dead people,' her revenge was over and she no longer needed it for that. Chrome focused on the mess of light purple hair with red and black stripes in it that she was hugging and nodded. 'If I could go HDD one more time, I want to go HDD for her. She's giving her all for us, we need to give back to her.'

(-)

The next morning...

Groaning as she woke up, Uni looked around her room and rubbed her eyes to get the sleep out of them. "What time is it?" She asked and sat up, finding that it was just after six in the morning. "Well, I guess I was exhausted." She frowned in confusion. "I wonder why Noire let me..." Her eyes widened as memories from the previous day came flooding back. "That..." She trembled and pulled her knees up to her face. "That's right... Noire... Noire's gone." She softly sobbed into her legs, feeling the pain of losing her big sister all over again. "Why?" She asked, her voice hoarse as her tears came rushing out of her eyes again.

It was almost ten minutes later when the door to her room opened up. "I don't think... OH! You're awake!"

Uni lifted her head and blinked a few times to get the tears to break up so she could see clearly. "Who?" It wasn't working, so she rubbed her eyes out with her hands.

When she pulled her hands down, she saw the person had moved next to her bed. "I'm Neptune." She smiled at Uni. "CPU of Planeptune and the main character of this story." She giggled at Uni's confused look. "Don't worry about it."

"You were..." Uni gave her a confused look and finally noticed the collar around her neck. "Wait, that collar, isn't that..."

"Ah!" Neptune giggled and ran a finger over it. "Yeah, it restricts the Fearicite energy in me, at least that's what Chrome told me. Mind if I sit next to you?" Uni shook her head and Neptune smiled and plopped onto bed next to her. "Thanks. Anyway, Chrome told me that Anonydeath was going to work on a modified one."

"...You trust him?" Uni asked, her voice soft as she looked down. "It's because of him that..." She stopped as she felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning, she saw Neptune giving her a sad smile.

"He's a bit of a meanie." Neptune admitted to her. "The other version of him brainwashed my daughter and forced us to fight for ten years."

"Other version?" Uni asked, confusion in her voice. "What's that about?"

Neptune shifted so that her knees were pulled up against her chest and she turned her head so she could rest it against her knees. "Well, it's like how jelly and jam are very similar, but one's more jiggly and the other one is made up of stuff? Kind of like that." She giggled at Uni's confused look and sighed. "I'm a CPU from Gamindustri."

"...Gamindustri?" Uni asked as Neptune sat up and straightened her legs out. "So what's that... Another world?" Neptune nodded and Uni rubbed her head. "I thought that stuff was all science fiction."

Neptune giggled at her. "I know! It felt so weird to me too at first."

"So why are you here?" Uni asked and jerked as Neptune reached in and gently rubbed the tears out of her eyes.

"I want to help you." Neptune said gently. "I mean, when I helped P-Ko, Rom and Ram, they were in a really bad place." She pulled her hands away from Uni's face. "You aren't in the same bad place as they were in. So I'm not sure what to do here."

"...What to do?" Uni asked her.

"Well..." Neptune scratched her cheek and looked a little nervous. "I took Rom, Ram and P-Ko with me to help them learn to be good CPUs because the Voids that were in charge before were really bad?"

"As bad as Kei?" Uni raised an eyebrow and Neptune nodded. "Bullshit!"

Neptune sighed, knowing that Uni wouldn't believe her. "Ask Rom and Ram about what they went through."

"...They didn't like talking it." Uni told her and Neptune tilted her head. "We... We talked some yesterday for a few hours while you were out."

"Oh!" Neptune smiled at that. "I'm glad you're friends then." She giggled as Uni blushed softly. "Anyway, yeah, White Void was a real meanie and hurt them a lot. And in Leanbox, well... Green Void was a real pervert and tried to force herself on me and Iris Void was..."

Uni watched as Neptune shuddered and went pale. "...That bad?" Neptune nodded and the black-haired girl sighed softly. "What should I do?"

"What do you want to do?" Neptune asked her and Uni gave her a confused look. "Do you want to stay here? Do you want to come with us? At least to see what it's like in the other nations?"

Uni bit her lip softly. "...Noire wanted me to be a good CPU." She gave Neptune a serious look. "Then... Teach me to be a good CPU, please?"

Neptune smiled at her. "Sure!" She got off the bed and spread her arms wide while taking several steps forward before spinning and winking at Uni while putting her right hand by her head with her index and middle fingers extended. "But first! There's something very important we need to do!"

"...What?"

"Breakfast! I'm starving!" Neptune giggled as Uni twitched and fell over, which wasn't that far, considering that she was in bed, and caused Neptune to giggle at her.

(-)

After breakfast...

Uni found herself in Noire's office again, this time with Steamax, Neptune and Chrome with her. "I... Should I be in here?"

"It's technically your office now," Chrome said to her as she looked around and sighed. "A messy office."

"To be fair, with the mess that the others made in here, there was no time to clean it up." Steamax told her. "Lady Uni..."

"...Lastation still needs someone in charge." Uni told him and walked over to the desk, before sitting in the chair and sighing again. It didn't feel right, being in Noire's chair. Not like this. Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm down and activated the computer terminal to see the list of things that needed to get done. "...This is a lot of stuff."

Neptune came up behind her and looked at the list. "Wowza! That's a lot of stuff!" It kind of amused her that no matter what dimension she was in, Lastation always seemed to have a ton of paperwork and other stuff to do.

"Lady Uni," Steamax spoke up, "if you could create some extra terminals for Lady Neptune and Lady Chrome, perhaps they could help?"

"We are CPUs after all." Chrome told Uni, who nodded and opened up some terminals at points across the room. "Well, at least I won't get hand cramps with stamps and pens." Chrome muttered as she went to another terminal and sat down, going over the information. Neptune took a seat next to Uni to help her out directly.

Over the course of the next couple of hours, Rom, Ram and Peashy all found their way into the office at various points. While Uni had been against the idea of them being in there again, when they sat down at the holo-terminals and began helping, Uni relaxed and continued her work.

"Hey..." Uni looked at Neptune, who paused to look back at her. "Um... Noire was really good at her job. I can't possibly do what she did. And even she needed help running the nation."

"My suggestion," Chrome told her, "is to find some people that you can trust." She sighed at the dirty look on Uni's face. "Don't be like that."

"It's not that, it's..." Uni trailed off, trying to describe how she felt.

"Lady Uni," Steamax spoke up, "Lady Noire had her reasons for not trusting people. But can you say that you trust no one?"

Uni was about to answer when she looked around the office and saw Neptune, Rom, Ram, Peashy and Chrome before looking back at Steamax and shaking her head. "No. I know that I can trust some people. I just don't know who I can trust."

"Um..." Neptune spoke up, "I know that this might be a bit weird, but why not Brave? Noire said she wanted to rebuild him. Maybe if his memory is still there he can be useful?" She didn't know that much about robots as that was more of Nepgear's strength, but she did pay attention to things from time to time.

"...That's not a bad idea." Uni said, nodding. "I'll have to figure some more stuff out."

"Hey, Uni," Ram spoke up and Uni looked at her as she smiled at her. "Don't worry about Lastation, you'll be a great leader." Rom and Peashy both nodded, though it was obvious Peashy wasn't doing much with the terminal as she was just touching it all over the place without looking at it.

Uni, Chrome and Neptune all sweat-dropped as they looked at Peashy doing that. At least the three of them could look over what she was doing and fix any problems later.

"Thanks." Uni smiled, before sighing softly. "Um..." She fidgeted softly as everyone looked at her. "...If it's okay... I'd... I'd like to have a funeral for Noire."

"Sure." Chrome smiled at her. "How big do you want it?"

Uni sighed softly and shook her head. "I want to keep it small, just us, okay?" The others nodded and Uni had a small smile on her face. "I think that's how she'd want it."

"Yeah, probably." Neptune thought about making a loner joke, but decided that it wouldn't be a good time to make that. "Both of the Noires that I know were kind of private people."

"Thanks." Uni smiled and went back to doing the paperwork as she thought about how to set up the funeral. "Huh?" She blinked as she came across something unusual. "What's..." Her pupils went blank and white while an angry expression crossed her face. "Hey! Who charged the Basilicom for hospital services rendered?!"

When Uni read off the services, Chrome sweat-dropped and fought the urge to blush and chuckle. 'Ooops.' She thought to herself and tried to keep quiet.

To be continued...

* * *

Brick jokes are fun.

Also, I had no idea what to name this chapter.


	72. Recovery

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Lord of Chaos: Ah, the old MST3K fics. I remember those. If anyone wants to do one for this fic, feel free to go right ahead and do it.

* * *

Chapter 64

"Just breathe deeply, Miss IF." The doctor said as he fastened a mask over IF's face. "When you wake up things will be better."

IF nodded and closed her eyes while she breathed in the sleeping gas that the doctors had for her.

Outside of the exam room, Linda sat, a troubled look on her face. "I hope this works..." She knew how much it would mean for IF if her skin cells could be fixed and she didn't need to be rubbed down every day.

"Don't worry, Linda." Compa smiled at her as she sat next to the green-haired girl. "I'm sure that Iffy will get through this just fine." Linda gave her a worried look and Compa gently took the other woman's hand and patted it. "I had a talk to the doctors about what's going to happen. It's quite complicated, but this should fix Iffy's problems."

Linda nodded and bit her lip lightly as she thought back to her conversation with Uni.

*Flash*

"You want me to do what?" Uni asked Linda while Chrome, Neptune and Compa all looked on, behind them the other CPU Candidates all watched as well, to see what Uni would do.

"Please?" Linda asked and bowed her head as she sank to her knees. "IF really needs this. She was badly burned because of White Void and she can barely function in life without getting special ointment just to keep her skin from drying out completely."

"...You want me to use the Basilicom's funds to fix some random girl I've never met... Why?" Uni asked her and Linda found herself slumping in defeat. "Seriously, I can't help everyone at once."

"You can't help everyone, this is true." Chrome spoke up, "but Uni... Part of being a CPU is helping as many people as you can." Uni looked at her in confusion and looked at Neptune, who nodded. She then saw that Rom, Ram, Filyn and Peashy were all nodding as well. "In the end, it's your call, but you have more people support you if you help them."

"It almost sounds like we're their slaves or something." Uni muttered, a disgruntled look on her face at the thought of it.

The next thing Uni knew, Neptune was in front of her, giving her a sad look. "I knew CPUs that thought like that." She sighed sadly. "We're not the slaves of the people, Uni. We're Goddesses, we're supposed to help people."

Chrome thought about it for a moment before shrugging. "Yeah, I guess you don't need to help IF or anyone for that matter." Uni and Neptune both looked at her, with Neptune frowning in confusion. "Though doing so will result in you becoming a Void for sure." Chrome told Uni, who stiffened. "I understand why you would have a hard time understanding why you need to help others, especially those you don't know. I was the same way when I was a CPU Candidate after all."

"You were?" Filyn asked, getting a nod from Chrome.

"Yes, I didn't understand why I had to fulfill people's desires or whims." Chrome told her and then addressed Uni. "Even if you're not a fully realized CPU, doing good deeds for the people, if you let them know that it's you who did it, will cause people to put faith in you."

Uni let out a soft breath and looked at Linda, before nodding. "F...Fine." Linda's eyes widened and she felt them tearing up. "I want to be a good CPU, since Noire asked me to. So I'll authorize the funds for your friend's procedure."

The next thing Uni knew, Linda was hugging her and thanking her over and over again.

Uni had a decidedly uncomfortable look on her face as she nodded. "S...Sure, you're welcome..."

*End Flash*

Linda sighed and looked down. Even with Uni authorizing the payment for IF's treatment, it still took the doctors two months of tests upon tests to determine how the procedure would go down fully. While everything was done now and it was just a matter of them doing the procedure, she still worried that things wouldn't go well.

Compa smiled at Linda and then looked at the operating room. "Iffy will be fine." She patted Linda's hand and got up. "I got to go to the bathroom, okay?" Linda nodded and Compa walked off.

"...I hope you're right." Linda muttered softly.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Chrome looked up as Filyn, Neptune and Peashy walked into the Basilicom office with Neptune looking worn out and Filyn and Peashy both smiling. "So, how did the interview go?"

Neptune walked over to the couch and flopped onto it, face first while groaning loudly.

"That good, huh?" Chrome smirked as Neptune groaned again. "Well, you were the one who thought going on television to have an interview as Purple Heart would be a good idea." There was a grumble from the couch and Chrome looked at Filyn, who smiled and ran out of the room. She then looked back at Neptune. "Come on, I'm sure it wasn't that bad."

Neptune made some sort of grunting sound and Chrome sighed while walking over to the couch and sitting down next to Neptune's head. She was amused as Neptune reached forward and grabbed her legs before pulling herself up to rest her head on Chrome's lap. "You're setting a bad example for Peashy."

"Don't care, tired." Neptune muttered and Chrome sighed while rubbing Neptune's back. When Neptune practically started purring in contentment, Chrome chuckled.

"Since when did I get a cat?"

"Meow." Neptune replied, getting a laugh from Chrome.

"You know that cats get spayed, right?" Chrome hid a laugh as Neptune shot straight up, her hair standing on end while looking at Chrome in fear. "Feeling better?"

"No." Neptune sighed and slumped back down, this time she was laying on her back while resting her head on Chrome's lap. "So many questions."

"Neptuna, what does your relationship with Chrome mean?" Peashy asked and Chrome jerked while Neptune nodded.

"Stuff like that?"

"Some of it." Neptune sighed heavily and blinked as Filyn came back into the room with a plate full of pudding cups. "Custard pudding?" Filyn nodded and Neptune lifted her hands up. "Gimme!"

There was some laughter in the room as Filyn did just that, while giving one to Peashy, who sat on the floor and rested her head near Neptune, and one to Chrome, who merely smiled and then she sat next to Chrome, enjoying her own pudding cup.

After eating in silence, Neptune closed her eyes and sighed in contentment before reaching up and touching the air around her neck. The air briefly shimmered before revealing a collar around her neck. "So... When will perv-bot be done with his other version?"

"He said in a couple of days." Chrome answered her. "Rom and Ram are doing the paperwork right now." Neptune sighed but knew it was needed for them. "Don't worry, I screened it ahead of time. If there's anything they aren't sure about they can ask me."

A moment later Rom stuck her head into the room. "Oh! Big sis Neptune! You're back!" Neptune waved at her. "Um, I got a weird request." Both Neptune and Chrome looked at her and motioned for her to continue. "Someone wanted a picture of all the CPU Candidates and CPUs."

"...That's not so bad." Chrome said, wondering what the catch was.

"And pictures of us in swimsuits." Rom said and both Neptune and Chrome twitched. "And they want us to do a bunch of poses that... Well..." Her face turned red. "Ram and I tried those poses out, they're really kind of um... Weird."

"Weird how?" Chrome asked, though she was tempted to just deny the shot all together.

Rom nodded and came over with a sheet of paper. "See? They look weird."

Chrome took the paper and was prepared for something lewd or disgusting.

What she saw was a bunch of images of girls taking poses in nice swimsuits and taking poses that weren't out of line with a normal swimsuit shoot. "...What do you think?" She handed it to Neptune. "We have a few days."

Neptune giggled softly and sat up. "Sure, why not? As long as they aren't nudie shots, it'll help us get shares and have people put faith in us." She giggled at the looks of disbelief she was getting. "With how serious everything's been, what's the harm in a little bit of cheesecake?"

"Fine," Chrome said, deciding it wasn't worth arguing over. "But we get final say on the swimsuits and poses." Rom nodded and took the paper back to Ram to tell her what was decided. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Well," Neptune giggled at her, "we could do this... Or we could get a bunch of dogoos to get us into a lewd CG for the fanboys."

"...Photo shoot is fine." Chrome nodded.

Neptune giggled and wondered how Uni was doing with her project.

(-)

In an underground lab...

"Are you sure about this, Lady Uni?" Steamax asked as the two watched the procedure by the lab techs.

"...No." Uni said with her arms crossed over her chest as she watched the people do the finishing touches on the project she had assigned them to. "But it wouldn't feel right without at least trying."

"Lady Uni." One of the technicians spoke up. "We're done." Uni nodded and stepped up to the project. "We're activating him now." Uni nodded again as the the technicians did just that.

There was a crackle and a whirring sound as Uni and Steamax looked on dispassionately.

When Uni heard a groan and saw the eyes of the being in front of her light up, she took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "Hello, Brave."

"W...Where?" Brave asked and looked around. Or tried to as he found his body was in some sort of stasis field. "You are... The CPU Candidate of Lastation, correct?" Uni nodded at him. "What happened? The last thing I remember... I believe I was facing Black Void and another CPU in battle. My memory is a little scrambled."

"You faced off against all of us, my sister and her friend, Purple Heart, managed to defeat you by..." Uni trailed off and shook her head. "By using an unusual attack to turn Noire into a sword and they struck you down."

"Yes..." Brave's eyes lit up as his memory became more clear. "I remember now. What happened to..."

Uni took a shuddering breath and closed her eyes to try and fight the urge to cry again. "Noire... Perished due to a trap that your creators laid for her." Opening her eyes, she glared at Brave as her eyes shimmered with unshed tears. "My sister's dead, she's not coming back, and all because Kei and Singe decided that they were better rulers than Noire was."

"...I see." Brave answered her as he waited for her to try and regain her composure. "Did you spend time and resources to revive me only so you could use me to avenge your sister?"

"What good would it do?" Uni asked him, "my sister's dead and can't..." She shuddered. "She can't come back." Glaring at Brave, it was taking everything she had to not start screaming, crying or trying to hurt someone.

She had done enough of that in the past couple of months in private.

"I wish that I could undo my part in your sister's death." Brave told her.

Steamax put a hand on Uni's shoulder to help her regain her composure and gave Brave a stern look. "Lady Uni also thought it would be a good idea to set your programming to be more neutral. As of right now any choices you make are yours."

"I see." Brave said in understanding. "I certainly do not feel any of the compulsion programming that was there before."

"If you truly wish to help undo what happened to my sister," Uni told him, "help me." She knew the technicians were listening in, but she didn't care. "Brave, my sister wanted to rebuild you and I suspect that she would have had you help her bring order to Lastation." Uni took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "The CPUs of Planeptune and Eden are helping me run the nation right now, but I know that one day I will need to run it fully without their help. For that, I will need help." She gave him a small grin. "And who better to run security for Lastation than a scary, giant robot that not even the previous CPU could defeat by herself?"

"May I request that I not be used to mercilessly kill everyone I go against?" Brave asked and Uni looked at him in confusion. "I was made to kill your sister. If possible, I would like to not have to do that."

"I'll leave that to your judgement." Uni told him, her eyes narrowed at him while she frowned, "but know this, Brave. I won't tolerate betrayal. My sister was brought down by those who betrayed her. She expected it. I don't want that. I want people who will be loyal to me to help me."

"I promise you," Brave said to her, "that I will not betray your trust, betray you or cause harm to Lastation."

Uni nodded and looked at one of the technicians. "Turn off the stasis field." The other person nodded and did just that. She looked back at Brave as he took a few steps forward before kneeling down in front of Uni. "Brave?"

"I am Brave and I shall protect Lastation and you from all threats. This I promise."

"I want you to know," Steamax spoke up, "if you betray Lady Uni, I shall personally see to your destruction."

"Of course." Brave nodded.

Uni nodded, turned and left the room, followed by Steamax. Stopping at the door, Uni turned back to Brave. "You'll get your sword back soon. I need to meet with the others."

"Of course." Brave nodded.

(-)

A few minutes later Uni and Steamax were in the lift heading up when Uni hit the emergency stop button and walked over to Steamax and buried her face into his chest, sobbing while she hugged him.

"It's okay, Lady Uni." Steamax whispered to her while he hugged her back. "Let out your pain, no one will think less of you if you cry."

"I miss her so much." Uni sobbed while Steamax rubbed her back. "I wish I had spent more time with her."

Steamax just quietly held the sobbing girl while trying to soothe her. 'I promise you, Lady Uni, I won't ever let you get hurt like that ever again, no matter what.'

The two stayed like that for nearly twenty minutes before Uni pulled away and nodded her head in thanks while pulling out a packet of tissue paper to clean her eyes and nose. "I thought..." Uni began before wiping her eyes, "that I was done, but when I saw Brave and talked to him, all of my feelings came bursting back up."

"Lady Uni, it has only been a couple of months since your sister's passing and you still have yet to have a proper funeral to say goodbye." Steamax told her, "it is only natural that you grieve." Uni nodded to him before finishing cleaning up and starting the lift up again.

"Thank you, Steamax."

(-)

An hour later...

"We're doing WHAT?!" Uni gawked at Neptune and then she glared at Chrome. "And you're okay with this?!"

Chrome nodded as she and Neptune held up measuring tape while all of the CPU Candidates, Neptune and Chrome were stripped down to their underwear, save for Uni. "It's just some harmless photos."

"But people will look at me!" Uni's face turned red. "And then they'll imagine things and want to do perverted things and..."

"Eh, don't worry about that." Neptune told her and Uni stared at her. "So long as all they do is look and don't touch, then it's fine. Unless you want them to touch, then it's okay."

"But, big sis Neptune," Rom pointed out as Chrome measured her breasts, "you and Chrome said it wasn't okay for Ram or me to say yes back in Leanbox when someone wanted to touch us."

"That's different." Neptune and Chrome said at the same time. Rom looked confused and Chrome gave Neptune a look that told her she had to explain.

"Well..." Neptune thought about it for a bit before sighing. "Well, Rom, it's like this... Uni's a bit older than you are," Rom nodded, "and you weren't that used to getting positive attention, right?" Rom nodded again. "So, what I'm saying is..."

"People would have taken advantage of you." Chrome told Rom, who looked up and back at Chrome in confusion. "We were worried that some of the people there would have taken advantage of several things to seduce you and do lots of things to you while not caring about you."

"...Oh." Rom nodded, understanding a bit better, though Rom started to blush as she thought about some of the people back in Leanbox. "Some of those people were really good looking too." She giggled and both Neptune and Chrome looked at each other before sighing heavily while Uni suddenly burst into giggles.

"Sorry, that was just so... Funny." Uni giggled some more while Rom joined her and the two older CPUs just rolled their eyes while smiling.

If Uni could giggle and smile, despite being in pain, they knew that she would eventually be okay.

To be continued...

* * *

Sorry to everyone who wants the cheesecake, that'll happen off-screen.

...

Unless someone wants to draw the characters in bikinis/swimsuits and posing, I won't complain.


	73. Funeral

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

This chapter effectively ends the Lastation arc of the story. About time, I hear all of you scream.

* * *

Chapter 65

Neptune looked at the metal band over her right wrist. "I'm kind of surprised this is so... Cool." It was actually a couple of metal bands that were inter-connected and made up of several metals. Plus it felt really comfortable on her wrist.

"Well," Anonydeath sounded pleased with himself, "I really don't like ugly collars. I save those for animals and people who are into that FREAKAY stuff!"

Neptune sweat-dropped as she thought about the time that she walked in on some people doing just that. "It... Takes all types, I guess?"

Anonydeath laughed at her. "Oh, don't I know it?" He cleared his throat. "Anyway, just don't push yourself too hard when you're in HDD and you'll be fine. That should filter out the Fearicite that's in your Share Crystal. And with the... Relatively positive outlook people have on you and the others, it should help."

Neptune nodded. Between the interviews and photo-shoots that had happened since the death of Noire, she could feel a decent amount of shares from Lastation to go with what she was getting from Lowee and Leanbox. 'I'm going to need them too.' She had no idea what was waiting for her in Planeptune, but she knew that they would be heading in that direction today.

"Hmm, I'm curious," Anonydeath mused and Neptune looked at him, "you could have had me arrested or executed for my role in killing Noire. The worst you did was have me placed under surveillance and Mr. Badd's currently in prison for his actions. Why? I'm sure that Little Uni would love to have our heads on pikes."

Neptune looked at him and took a deep breath, slowly letting it out. "Because," and to his surprise, her voice was actually fairly serious, "I don't want Uni to go down the path of revenge." Her eyes were tired and haunted and Anonydeath wondered just what she had seen in her life. "CPUs that go down that path end up in a bad place."

_"The world will eventually turn on you as well. I'm just saving you from feeling that pain."_

Neptune didn't know if Rei was correct. But she did know that if she had heard that after dealing with everything in this world, she would have agreed with the other CPU.

Anonydeath watched as Neptune made her way to the door and he sighed. "Hey..." She stopped and turned to look at him. "Thank you." Neptune looked at him curiously. "For helping Little Uni, for trying to help Noire, for being a good person." Neptune jerked in surprise and felt her cheeks flushing softly. "This world would be better off if we had more people like you."

Neptune smiled at him. "Thanks!"

(-)

Elsewhere...

There was a knocking on the door and IF looked to it as Linda and Gust walked in. "Hey..." She greeted, her voice soft.

"Hey, yourself." Linda smiled at her. "How are you feeling?"

"You asked me that yesterday. And the day before that." IF smirked at her. "I'll tell you the same thing I told you then. It's weird not to have to get naked at least once a day and have someone rub their fingers all over every inch of my skin." She gave Linda and Gust a small smirk. "It feels nice not to have to worry about my skin cracking and breaking apart all the time."

"I'm glad." Linda smiled at her and reached forward, grabbing IF's hand, giving it a squeeze. "Neptune's doing pretty good and the others have taken a real shine to Uni."

"She's the reason I got treated, right?" IF asked, getting a nod from Linda. "I'll have to thank her when I get out of here."

"The doctors told Gust that IF can leave tomorrow." Gust smiled at IF. "Neptune wants to go to the last nation soon but she doesn't want to leave IF behind."

IF smiled at that. "That's good." At that moment a doctor walked into IF's room. "Is there something wrong?"

"No, just checking up on you." The doctor smiled at IF. "I'm still amazed that you could function with how badly damaged your skin and muscles were from the fire you were in." He shook his head in wonderment. "While we were able to clear up the dis-figuration and scars from your skin after repairing the damage, the pigment change to your skin seems permanent. Even your new skin cells are being made with that coloration."

"It's fine." IF smiled at him. "So I'll look like I'm a living flame or something for the rest of my life, at least I can do stuff to work up a sweat again."

"Well, it's pretty neat." Linda told her. "Besides, you're the only girl who has a flame swirl on her butt." She laughed as IF rolled her eyes. "So she'll be fine?"

"She'll be mostly okay, yes." The doctor told Linda. "She might need some physical therapy, but she should be okay."

After a few minor questions, the doctor left and IF sighed and slumped into the bed a bit. "I'll be so glad to get out of here."

"Hey..." Linda spoke up. "Um... Can we talk?" IF blinked in confusion. "About us?"

"And Gust needs to go now." The bunny girl turned and left the room.

"Uh..." IF blushed as the door closed. "Linda? What are..?"

"...I always kept myself back because I knew that doing anything to or with you could cause your skin to break apart." Linda said, fidgeting. "But... IF, I... I want to, you know, be more than friends."

IF felt herself blushing even harder. "That is, ah..." When Linda sighed she shook her head. "No! It's not that I don't want to!" She fidgeted on the bed. "It's just... You know, so sudden and... Ah, hell!" She took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "I... Um... Yes..." She finished miserably, her voice barely a whisper.

The loud cheer and hug that Linda gave her let IF know that she made the right choice.

(-)

Elsewhere...

"Are you ready for this?" Filyn, dressed in a black dress, asked as she looked at Uni, who was in a similar formal black dress. Uni shook her head and Filyn gave her a small smile. "I don't think anyone is ever ready for this."

"Um..." Uni looked at Filyn. "You're not wearing an eye-patch anymore?"

"Does it bother you?" Filyn asked and looked at herself in a mirror. While her eye looked almost normal, there was the fact that it glowed red and moved in ways that her other eye didn't that would tip people off that it wasn't normal.

"It's a little weird." Uni admitted and sighed as Filyn put her eye-patch back on. "Sorry."

"It's fine." Filyn waved her concerns off and smiled. "Thanks to the fruit loop, I can see through my eye-patch. It's kind of odd though, when I have to do that, my brain sees everything in kind of a dim light."

"Didn't Anonydeath say that would happen to protect your mind or something?" Uni asked, remembering that the guy had said that her brain might not be able to comprehend certain things and had set up fail-safes to keep her from getting an aneurysm or something similar.

There was a knocking at the door and Rom opened the door, the short-haired girl was dressed in a similar black dress. "It's time."

Uni nodded as she and Filyn followed Rom out, where they saw Ram, Neptune and Chrome, all dressed in similar outfits. Steamax was there as well, looking no different than usual, though perhaps he was a little cleaner than usual. "Thank you, all of you."

"You're the one who wanted a small funeral service for her." Chrome said softly as they walked into the main office, which had been rearranged for this day. Uni had only invited them and Steamax to the funeral, stating that since Noire didn't trust humans that she wouldn't have wanted any humans at her funeral.

"I just want to say my goodbyes to her." Uni said as she looked at a picture of Noire surrounded by some candles. "Hello, Noire. I..." She shuddered and stiffened as she felt a hand on her shoulder. She didn't even need to look to know it was Steamax who was giving her support. "I'm doing my best. I promise, I'll make you proud of me. So, please..." She tried to smile at the picture while tears fell down her face. "Please watch over me."

She found herself crying again and this time Rom and Ram both got close to her and reassured her. "Thank you." She whispered and stood up. "Sorry, I... I have no clue how funerals are supposed to go."

"You're doing fine." Chrome smiled at her. "We're here to remember her and say goodbye. So I think you're doing just fine."

Uni nodded and smiled softly while she talked about her memories of Noire and even though she broke down crying several times throughout the speech, she was able to get through it, thanks to the other CPU Candidates.

Chrome leaned in close to Neptune and whispered. "We're heading to Planeptune next. Are you prepared?"

Neptune closed her eyes and shook her head. "No... But I need to go. It's time to bring this adventure to an end. It feels like we've been in Lastation longer than we were in the other nations put together."

Chrome smirked at that and the two quieted down as they listened to Uni speak about Noire.

(-)

In another location...

The room was cast in shadow as two females entered it. Normally they would walk past each other without talking much, such was their interactions, but today the shorter one with red hair with white tips suddenly stopped and frowned. "Hmm..."

"And what's wrong?" The other one, a taller, more mature one, wearing a chain mail bikini, turned to look at the other girl, who was wearing skin-tight black shorts and a sleeveless black, skin-tight shirt that showed off all of her curves while leaving very little to the imagination.

"I don't know," the shorter one pouted. "I think something bad might happen to my wifey soon!"

Flicking some of her long, blue hair out of her face, the taller one frowned. "But what could be strong enough to do something bad to the mistress?" Her eyes went white and blank. "And she's not your wifey either!"

A third person, this one was a short, petite girl with blonde hair while wearing a yellow shirt and loose yellow shorts, entered the room. "That's right! The lady is mine!" She loudly declared.

"Screw both of you!" The short one with red hair yelled at them. "You can't have my wifey!"

There was a throat clearing sound and all three stopped to see the last person there. "RED, Mina, B-Sha, please stop fighting," the last person, a girl in a rather... Revealing French Maid outfit as the skirt barely went past the curve of the speaker's butt and the top was low cut and showed off a decent amount of the speaker's cleavage while keeping her stomach exposed, stood in the room. "You know my sister hates it when you three fight." Her voice was soft and somewhat meek. "And I dislike it when sister gets mad. She takes it out on me."

"I'm sorry," RED said, lowering her head. "I don't want my wifey to get mad at you."

Mina winced. "Apologies for my behavior as well. I don't like it when the mistress gets mad."

"Sorry, Nepgear." B-Sha apologized to Nepgear.

"Thank you." Nepgear smiled at them.

To be continued...

* * *

And a sneak peek into Planeptune we go! Whee!


	74. Leaving Lastation

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Guess what? Christmas Present for all of you!

* * *

Chapter 66

"Wow!" Peashy's eyes sparkled as she saw the airship that they were getting to use to travel to Lastation. "It's so cool!"

"I'll say!" Uni beamed with pride. "I took one look at the airship you guys used to get to Lastation and I just felt that it wasn't good enough. Plus your ship would have taken us almost two months to get to Planeptune at its top speed."

"I happened to like the other one." Linda muttered as she looked over the new airship. "Though this one is kind of sleek." It was huge too. Nowhere even close to the size the C.I.D. had been, though Uni said that was because the C.I.D. was meant to transport weapons and troops easily, but it was much larger than the airship they had been using. Though it was more flat, like some sort of barge, than a boat-ship.

"It's called the C.L.A.N.K.," Uni told her, "don't ask me why all names are capitalized and have periods between each letter."

"It's generally because it's an acronym." Chrome said as she, Neptune, Filyn, Rom and Ram walked up to the group. "Where's Compa, Warechu, IF and Gust?"

"Already on board." Linda said as she walked up to the airship.

"You know..." Neptune giggled slightly. "This looks like something out of a certain movie." She winced as Chrome gave her a firm, but light tap on the back of the head.

"Don't break the mood with a bad joke." Chrome gave Neptune a small grin.

Neptune rubbed the back of her head and gave Chrome a bit of a dirty look. "...Okay, fine! Last one on is a Wookie and has to hit hyper-drive while grunting!"

Seeing everyone run off, Chrome blinked a few times. "...What's a wookie?"

(-)

On the ship, Uni jerked in surprise as she saw Steamax standing at the entrance of the ship, leaning against a wall. "What are you doing here, Steamax?!"

"Lady Uni," Steamax pushed himself off of the wall and took a knee in front of her. "I promised myself that I would not allow you to come to harm." He looked up at her. "Please, allow me to accompany you."

"But who will watch Lastation?" Uni asked, before the answer dawned on her. "You trust Brave?"

Steamax nodded and stood up. "Indeed." He thought back to his last conversation with Brave. "With his help, Lastation will be perfectly safe."

*Flash*

Standing in the Basilicom's yard, Brave looked around and paused as Steamax came out of the shadows. "I received your message, but what are you doing here?"

"Lady Uni will become the ruler of Lastation." Steamax told him. "And she will need people she can trust. Sadly, what did Lady Noire in was that she had no one she could trust and there were conspiracies around her to eliminate her."

"I know," Brave nodded at the other robot. "I am the result of one such conspiracy."

"Precisely." Steamax agreed with him. "You have, however, pledged to fix your mistake, correct?" Brave nodded, "then help me help Lady Uni. There are threats to her, both obvious and hidden that must be addressed."

"I take it you wish to deal with the hidden threats while I deal with the more obvious ones?"

"Of course," Steamax nodded to him, "the most dangerous threats are ones you cannot see. Can I trust you to protect Lastation in the coming weeks? Lady Uni plans to travel with CPU Purple Heart to Planeptune and I intend to go with her."

"Of course," Brave told him, "but know that I will only protect Lastation so long as Lady Uni lives. Should something happen to her, I will not raise my blade to defend this nation in the slightest."

"Fair enough." Steamax said and turned around as he walked into the shadows, disappearing. "I feel the same way, after all."

*End Flashback*

Uni gave Steamax a confused look. "Well, I guess if you trust him..." She wished that he had told her why he trusted Brave, but she could let it go for now.

The others got on and walked past her with Neptune making a quip about wanting to see if there were laser turrets in the back.

"...Are there laser turrets in the back?" Uni asked.

"I think there are..." Steamax said and both the robot and the CPU Candidate looked at each other in worry before running to the back of the ship.

(-)

"There ARE laser turrets!" Neptune giggled as she sat in a chair while looking out a large front window with four laser cannons pointing outwards. "Too bad there's no astroid field or bad guys we can shoot up with this."

"Don't turn them on!" Uni yelled as she looked up into the area Neptune, Rom, Ram and Peashy were all in.

"Nah, don't worry." Neptune smiled at her. "I don't even know how to turn them on."

Peashy looked around and saw a large button. "Is it this button, Neptuna?"

"HUH?!" Neptune's eyes went white and blank as Peashy pushed the button. Rom, Ram, Peashy and Uni's eyes all went white and blank the instant that the turrets came to life and fired a few blasts...

...Which hit a nearby parked air car...

...Which exploded into a ball of fire and scrap metal.

"Apparently it was, P-Ko." Neptune sweat-dropped and gently pushed the younger girl out of the gunner turret while Rom and Ram followed after her.

"What did I do to deserve this?" Uni asked, whimpering.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I didn't see anyone in the car." Neptune pointed out, getting a dirty look from Uni. "Sorry, I really didn't know what button turned it on."

Uni rubbed her forehead. "Well, it's fine, no one got hurt." Heck, she didn't even know there had been laser turrets built into the ship, so it wasn't like she could have warned them not to push any buttons.

"I'm really sorry." Peashy said, looking down. "I didn't mean to."

"As Lady Uni pointed out," Steamax interjected, "no one got hurt, but let's not do that again."

The others all nodded.

(-)

In the cockpit, Linda was looking over everything while looking at an instruction manual. "So this is to start it up, emergency shut down, self destruct..." Her eyes went white and blank. "WHY WOULD ANYONE HAVE A SELF-DESTRUCT MECHANISM IN A SHIP?!"

"Maybe in case a tentacle monster got on board and was turning the ship into a portable seed bed?" IF suggested as she walked into the cockpit and leaned on the chair Linda was on. "Or maybe the ship and crew get captured by an alien life form and the only way to protect the planet is to blow the whole ship up to stop the aliens."

Linda gave her an amused look. "Only you would think of something like that." IF shrugged and Linda looked back at the instruction manual. "Lesse, this can travel at..." She trailed off as she looked at the speed. "Wow, that's fast."

"We could get to Lowee from here in like two days!" IF gawked at the speeds. "...I wonder..." She grinned at Linda. "Want to see if this thing can do tricks?"

Linda gave her a flat stare. "No. Sorry, IF, but I'm not used to flying this thing yet. Maybe after I get a handle on how she handles. Right now I just want to get to the next location in one piece." Seeing IF deflate and get a disappointed look on her face, Linda quickly tried to figure a way to cheer her up. "Well, maybe after I've had some experience with piloting this first, okay?" Linda was relieved when IF perked up. "Besides," Linda grinned as she ran her hands over the armrests of the chair, "I want to see how fast this thing can really go first."

"What do you think we'll find when we get to Planeptune?" IF asked. Before Linda could respond, Chrome walked into the cockpit.

"If you two lovebirds want to stop flirting," Chrome fought to hide a smirk as they blushed, "we're ready to leave at any time."

"Do you know how long it'll take us to get to Planeptune?" IF asked Chrome, who shook her head. "Why not?"

Chrome shook her head and turned to leave. "Even back when I was a CPU Candidate, Planeptune wasn't a nation you could really visit." She looked over her shoulder at the two girls. "You'll find out when we get close."

With those words, she left the two of them.

"What did she mean by that?" IF wondered.

Shrugging, Linda went back to figuring out how the ship worked.

Less than twenty minutes later, the ship was in the air and traveling through Lastation airspace.

In another room, Ram was looking at some screens that were picking up some Lastation programs. "Look!"

Uni and Rom both looked at the screen she pointed to and they saw that Famitsu girl that had interviewed Purple Heart speaking.

"Citizens of Lastation. As you can see, the C.L.A.N.K. is leaving the Basilicom today as the CPUs who came to Lastation to offer us help now travel to the other countries to help them. Let us all give them our support and faith."

Uni smiled softly as she listened to that. Hearing those words, even if from someone she didn't fully trust, was nice.

(-)

It was a few hours later after the C.L.A.N.K. had left Lastation and had gotten out of the pollution and over the seas that Neptune found herself yawning and walking to the showers. "I'm feeling all icky..." She grumbled and for once she wasn't talking about the Fearicite corruption. Her skin felt grungy and she couldn't wait to clean it off.

After she got into the changing station, the petite girl stripped out of her clothes and started humming while pulling her panties down, she suddenly stopped and giggled. "I bet there's a lot of perverts who are staring at my butt, huh?" She asked as she bent over to pick her underwear off the floor. Grabbing a towel, she threw it over her arm and pushed her way into the showers.

She heard the showers going off and knew that this was one of the only showers in the entire ship, so she didn't mind sharing it. 'Besides, maybe it's Iffy or Compa?' She thought to herself and smiled at the thought of bonding with the two of them while showering together.

A sudden loud moan caused Neptune to stop and gawk at what she was seeing.

Compa's naked body was rather nice, even from behind. After all, the girl had a rather supple butt that matched her boobs. But from the angle Neptune was looking at, she could see Compa's boobs moving while her arms were held above her head. "Ah..." Compa moaned out again.

"Chu... It's hard to lather up your breasts when you keep moaning, Compa." Warechu said as Compa turned slightly, her face red and Neptune could see a lathered up Warechu sitting on Compa's breasts.

"I'm sorry, Warechu," Compa blushed heavily, "but the way you're washing my breasts, it's very... ACK! Nep Nep!"

Neptune's face was bright red while she had a dopey smile on her face while steam came bursting out of her ears. "...Nope! I saw nothing!" She turned and walked out, twitching.

The fact that this Compa and Warechu were close was one thing.

Knowing that they were doing lewd things together was something else entirely.

To be continued...

* * *

Warechu gets a nice Christmas Present as well.

And yes, that's basically the Millennium Falcon they're flying.


	75. Interlude: Hyperdimension 4

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Interlude: Hyperdimension 4

"Hello!" A voice called out into the Basilicom as two people walked in. "Ge Ge! I brought some pudding like you asked!" Compa smiled as she walked in with a large bag full of puddings.

Nepgear poked her head out from another room and smiled at the nurse. "Thanks, Compa, just bring it in here. IF! Hello!"

"Hey, Gear." IF smiled and waved at her. "Still no luck with Nep being gone?" She sighed when Nepgear gave her a sad look. "Ah! Sorry!" She rubbed the back of her head. "I didn't mean to..."

"It's okay, IF." Nepgear smiled at her. "I know you didn't mean any harm by it." She disappeared behind the corner and the other two followed after her.

There was some voices that came from down the hallway as Compa and IF entered the room. "What's going..?" IF asked and stopped to stare, as did Compa when she saw what IF was looking at. "...Why is the other Nep here and what is she doing with all that stuff over her?"

Neptune looked up from her position on the floor and stuck her tongue out at IF. "Well, I was trying to help Nepgear make food for Crostie, but I slipped on some water and made a huge mess with the cake batter."

"Yeah, and it looks lewd." IF deadpanned, noting how the sticky goo that was dripping from Neptune's face, hair and the amount that got onto her chest made for an interesting sight.

"Iffy!" Compa pouted at her. "It's not Big Nep Nep's fault that she slipped and fell on her butt!"

Neptune gave IF an amused look and ran her right finger over her breasts, coating it in the batter before slowly lifting it up and holding it above her mouth as she stuck her tongue out and allowed it to drip down to her mouth while she lowered her finger and licked and slurped at the digit. She mentally giggled as IF's face turned red and the brunette looked away in a huff.

"Hey, what's all the noise? Ah! Ifsy! Compsy!" Uzume smiled as she saw Neptune's friends in the room. "Hey! Nepsy, what are you doing?"

Pulling her finger out of her mouth with a pop, Neptune stood up and giggled. "Just having some fun, Uzume." She sighed as she saw that her parka was covered in goop. "I'm going to need to get cleaned up."

As she walked off, IF shook her head. "Yep, she sure is a Nep alright."

"It's a good thing you called me, Ge Ge." Compa smiled as she walked over to the counter and put the pudding cups on it. "So is this a welcome home gift for Nep Nep?"

Nepgear shook her head. "No, as much as I know she'd love it, it's for Croire." Compa and IF looked at each other in confusion and then back at Nepgear. "See, she's out of power and..."

"No, I get that," Compa smiled at Nepgear, "I wonder why you asked me to make Nep Nep's favorite pudding if it's for Croire."

"...Oh." Nepgear sighed and looked down. "...I know it's only been a few days here, Compa, but every time Neptune calls she sounds so tired and sad and..." Her eyes watered up. "I want to help her, so I figured," Nepgear smiled at them, "that maybe Neptune's favorite pudding would help Croire regain her energy."

"Hmm..." IF tapped her chin. "Where are the other CPUs?"

"Ah!" Nepgear rubbed the back of her head. "Uni's doing some quests that popped up because every time Neptune disappears something weird or bad happens like some sort of crazed CPU showing up and needing to be stopped and she wanted to be prepared in case that happens again. Ram went home because Blanc told her to go home and Vert had some stuff she needed to do back in Leanbox."

They both nodded in understanding when they heard that. That made a lot of sense.

Compa walked over to Nepgear and gave the puprle-haired girl a smile. "I'm sure that Nep Nep's just fine, Ge Ge." Her smile faded as Nepgear had a sad look on her face. "Ge Ge?"

"I... I have a really bad feeling, Compa." Nepgear closed her eyes and put her right hand over her chest. "There's a cold pit in my chest that's telling me that she needs help and Croire won't be recharged enough to travel to the dark side of dimensional space until tomorrow morning at least."

"Hey, Gearsy..." Nepgear turned to look as Uzume walked into the room, yawning. "Got done with the special surprise for Nepsy. Oh, hey Compsy, Ifsy..."

"Special surprise?" Nepgear asked and Uzume gave her a thumbs up.

"If Crosy can open a small portal to where Nepsy is, I'm sure that what I got will be helpful for her."

"I hope so." Nepgear smiled, though privately she was starting to worry. The citizens of Planeptune were starting to ask where Neptune was and Nepgear was a little worried that if they didn't get her home in the next few days that there would be serious problems for everyone.

"Hey, Gear," IF gave Nepgear a confident look, "it's Nep. She'll be fine. She is the main character after all."

"Yeah." Nepgear smiled at IF.

Even though they were saying that and the words did make Nepgear feel better, she couldn't shake a terrible feeling of wrongness whenever she thought about her elder sister. 'Something's happening to her, I can tell.' She mentally shook her head to try and push the feelings away. 'Neptune, what's going on? Hurry home.'

End Interlude: Hyperdimension 4

* * *

I just wanted to take a couple of days and relax before getting back to writing.


	76. Storm

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Final update of 2019. Have a great New Years everyone!

* * *

Chapter 67

Laying on her cot, Neptune rolled over and looked at the wall before sighing heavily. "This really isn't comfortable." Sure, the thing had been an obvious military or cargo ship, but they really could have made the beds more comfortable, darn it!

Sitting up, she yawned while stretching her arms over her head. "Lesse, it's been like three days since we left Lastation, Chrome said it'll take some more time to get to Planeptune..." Neptune trailed off, wondering why Chrome kept getting quiet whenever the mention of the final nation came up.

After stretching and getting fully dressed, Neptune walked out of the room she was in, which felt like a small storage locker rather than a room to sleep in. Stepping into a small corridor, she walked towards the main area of the ship and found Chrome sitting on a small couch looking at a data pad. "Hey..."

Chrome looked at her and smiled before patting her thigh. "If you're tired, you can use my lap again." Her smile increased as she found Neptune laying face-first on her lap. Gently stroking Neptune's hair, she went back to looking at the data pad.

"wtdng?"

"Just reading some books that were written in Lastation. It's quite interesting stuff." Chrome told Neptune as she rubbed the other girl's scalp gently. "The girls are all sleeping in one room. I made sure that there were several mattresses for them." Neptune nodded while Chrome idly petted her. "Hey, Neptune..."

"Hmm?" Neptune muttered, her voice, even muffled, was obviously drowsy.

Chrome smiled at her. "Nothing, just sleep well." Neptune nodded and it didn't take her long to pass out. 'I'm so, so sorry that you're suffering for our sakes.'

There were several reasons that Chrome had asked Uni to supply them with a fast ship for the final leg of the trip. Beyond the fact that she wanted this journey to end and with how far away Planeptune was, a fast ship was needed, the biggest reason was currently using her lap as a pillow.

"I know it's only been a few months, Neptune," Chrome whispered softly, "but I'm glad that I got to meet you."

Her only response was a light snore from Neptune.

Chrome sighed softly and went back to reading. It didn't take long for her eyes to get too heavy and she too passed out.

(-)

Hours later in the cockpit...

Linda yawned as she leaned back in the captain's seat. "Comfy?" She looked at IF, who was in the co-pilot's seat and curled up while snoring lightly. "Guess so, huh?" She smiled and looked back outside. "Daybreak, huh?" She yawned, wishing that IF was there to see it with her as the ocean and sky became more and more lit up as details, like the heavy amounts of clouds in the area, became visible. With the auto-pilot heading straight towards Planeptune, it was only a matter of time before they got there. Seeing the way the control console was lit up at various places was rather cool, especially with how they were different colors and some would turn off and others would turn on.

She was taken out of her musings when a screen in front of her lit up. "Huh? What's going on?"

"This is an automated message. You are entering forbidden territory. Turn back now."

The message shut off and Linda blinked, more awake now. "Well, fuck." She hated to wake everyone up, but felt this was important enough to do so. Pressing the ship's internal speaker system button, she started to speak to everyone. "Hey! Everyone! Get up! We got trouble!" She turned the ship to the right so that she wouldn't advance any further, but she didn't turn away from her destination.

It was only a few minutes later when Neptune, Chrome and Gust entered the cockpit. "What's the big hubbub, bub?" Neptune asked and Linda pressed a button on the dash, which replayed the message that she heard.

Chrome sighed heavily. "And this is the problem with getting to Planeptune." The others looked at her. "Go towards the nation, I'll explain." She looked out the door as she saw the CPU Candidates, all looking a bit groggy, Compa, Warechu and Steamax waiting outside the cockpit. "Since ages ago. Planeptune has been an unknown to most of the world. But there are some scant details that have gotten out into the world."

"What details?" Uni asked, curious about the mysterious nation.

"Reports of people being attacked by the ocean itself." Chrome told her. "As if there were giant sea monsters that would rise out of the ocean. Or the water tornadoes. Or the time that there would be people who had random boating accidents."

"That last one sounds familiar." Neptune muttered, wondering where she heard that before.

"...Sounds like Falcom." IF muttered, remembering her dead friend.

"Yeah! Falcom!" Neptune snapped her fingers. "She got into an accident so badly that she ended up jumping dimensions once!" When IF gave her a shocked look, Neptune gave her a small smile. "I mean my Falcom, sorry, Iffy."

"It's fine." IF muttered and mentally cursed herself for getting her hopes up that somehow her friend was still alive somehow.

"Um... Everyone..." Linda muttered softly as she looked out the window, her face pale. "Those stories about water tornadoes..?" She trailed off, pointing and everyone turned to look, seeing the clouds getting dark in the direction they were traveling and several tall tornadoes filled the air as lightning crackled through the sky.

"This is magic." Rom said and Ram nodded. "Someone cast a really strong spell and this whole area has lots of water tornadoes acting as a wall."

"Should we turn back?" Filyn asked. "I mean, we could just..."

"I need to go to Planeptune," Neptune interrupted, "and I need to know what's going on. Histy and Kurome, they're both there." She felt herself trembling a little bit. "I don't know who's the CPU, but I know that all the answers I need are there."

"If that's the case, then perhaps you'd be willing to follow my instructions?" A voice that had everyone jerking in surprise.

"Hey!" Neptune's eyes lit up. "I'd know that stern-yet-motherly voice anywhere! Histy!"

"...Do I really have that kind of voice?" Histoire asked.

"You do sound like my mom when you talk." Compa pointed out.

"Yeah, I feel the same way." IF nodded. "Though my mom had a higher pitch than you do."

"Wait, you can all hear Histy?" Neptune asked, her eyes white and blank.

"So your name is Histy?" Chrome asked the voice.

"Histoire, actually," the voice said softly. "To the one piloting, please listen to my instructions. There is a path through the tornado wall, but it's very risky."

Linda sighed and looked at the tornadoes as some of them turned sideways and the lightning crashed around the ship. "...Don't care about the risk, just get us through this."

"I apologize in advance, but you're going to be in for a bumpy ride."

"Histoire," Chrome spoke up, "I won't make threats, but how can we trust you?"

"...I suppose that you cannot trust me. But if you make it through the wall I can answer your questions." Histoire explained to her.

"How come you didn't contact us sooner then?" IF asked Histoire.

"...I deeply apologize. But the only one I could contact was Neptune and even that was limited at best. You are close to Planeptune now and I can more easily contact you. If you wish to know if I'm trustworthy, please, allow me to guide you through the tornado wall."

Linda looked at the storms as she flew towards them and sighed. "Fine! Disembodied voice take the controls! Take them from my hands!"

IF gave her an amused look. "You've been waiting to say that since you heard that song, haven't you?"

"It's an oldie but a goodie." Linda pointed out and IF laughed while everyone but Chrome looked confused. "It's from like eighty years ago. There were music stations in Lowee that would sometimes play old music from back in the day."

"I remember that song." Chrome smirked. "I sang it all the time until my sister pointed out the silliness of a CPU singing a song about a CPU taking the controls." She rolled her eyes at the look of amusement that Neptune gave her. "I sang along with it, I didn't write and sing the song."

Neptune snapped her fingers. "Drat! You'd have something in common with some of my friends then."

"Is that so?" Chrome asked, curious about that.

"Can you be quiet?!" Linda yelled as she focused on what Histoire was telling her.

"Yes, please? It's easier to concentrate on what's going on when I don't have other people talking." Histoire said. "Okay, next, ease to the left. This is where it starts to get hard."

"...Starts to?" Linda asked and gawked as she saw tornadoes that were parallel to the water. "THE FUCK?!"

"Just calm down. Fly upwards at twenty degrees, then bank to the right and then go straight North."

Linda nodded and moved the ship in the directions indicated. "GAH!" She screamed as she banked to the right and the wings of her ship were clipped, causing the whole airship to shake and everyone to get knocked to the ground.

"Oh dear, I should have warned you that you would get clipped."

"YES! YES YOU SHOULD HAVE!" Linda yelled, her pupils as small as pinpricks while she tried to recover and not get knocked into the ocean. "Okay, going straight North and... HOLY FUCK WHAT THE HELL?!"

Everyone got up and stared in shock out of the window as they saw water tornadoes twisting, turning and seemingly moving in all directions while lighting crashed down all around them.

"Please remain calm. Head straight for the center of the storm. If you have been following my instructions, you should be straight in line to what looks like three tornadoes meeting at a single point."

"...Yes." Linda muttered. "...Head to where they meet?"

"Yes."

"THAT'LL TEAR US APART!" Linda yelled.

Rom tilted her head and closed her eyes. "No..." She said softly. "It feels different... There's some magic there. Just go for it."

Linda looked at her. "Are you sure?" Rom nodded and Linda sighed, grimacing before turning back to the window. "Well... Fuck it!" She pushed the accelerator and rushed towards where the tornadoes met. When the ship met the threshold of the tornadoes, everyone cringed and waited for the ship to be torn apart, even Rom, who knew it felt different.

When the ship just shook slightly and passed through with no problem everyone sighed as they flew out of the storm and into crystal clear skies and water.

"PHEW!" Neptune sighed in relief. "I don't want to do that again. That was way scarier than any of the amusement rides in Lowee could ever be."

The others nodded and sighed in relief.

"Um..." IF spoke up, her eyes wide as she pointed a trembling finger at the window. "Guys..."

Everyone looked at what IF was pointing at and gawked in astonishment.

"Planeptune?" Neptune asked softly, her face pale and her eyes wide. "It..."

"It's HUGE!" Uni stared in shock. "I think it's bigger than Lastation!"

"Almost." Gust muttered in shock.

"So this is the mystery nation, huh?" Chrome asked as she looked at it. "...It's like someone fused Leanbox and Lastation together."

Neptune could only stare as she looked out at Planeptune and tried to ignore how the storms surrounded the nation.

Not only was it tall, but it was wide and had walls that had open jaws that spewed what looked like water into the ocean below. But on top of the insanely high walls that looked like some old-fashioned castle walls, the nation itself seemed to hover over the water.

"...Well... I guess we're storming Castle Grayskull." Neptune muttered and wondered if she should put on a skull mask or not.

To be continued...

* * *

And we finally got to Planeptune.


	77. Planeptune

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Time to meet some of Gamworld Planeptune's citizens.

* * *

Chapter 68

In a large, wide-open area with stone floors and walls with steps and doors at the edges of the place, though there was no ceiling, there was a loud crash and slam that caused the room to shake. "I am so utterly BORED!" An angry male voice screamed in frustration as he looked at the destroyed dummies all around him. "Hey! Bitch! You sure that this was the best you could do?" He yelled at the other person in the room before being blasted across the room by a powerful magical energy blast. "GAH!"

"Mind your tongue, Judge, before I mind it for you." The person, a fair-skinned woman in a black and green dress that had long slits on the sides, revealing her bare legs, on her feet were simple slip-on shoes and her top was mostly open revealing the woman's abdomen, while covering the outer half of her breasts and nipples while leaving the inner half exposed, her arms were completely exposed, other than some black finger less gloves on her fingers. On each finger was a ring with a different colored stone in the center of each. Her hair was blue, spiky and short, save for a long, thin ponytail that went from the back of her head down to between her butt-cheeks. "Or," she smirked and put her hand over her face as her blue eyes glowed brightly, "perhaps you wish to face the Madness of Darkness?"

"Tch," Judge, a large black robot, grumbled as he stood up. "Watch it, bitch. If not for the CPU's orders I would have killed you already!"

"Ohohohohoho!" The woman laughed at him as she put her hands over her mouth and floated backwards. "You, who has the tactical planning of a newborn child, wish to face me? The Madness of Darkness, MAGES., herself?"

Judge growled and a large scythe-like pole-arm formed in his hands. "Fuck it! I'll smash your arrogant bitch face in and then I'll let Trick have you!"

"You know him," MAGES. had an amused look on her face as she ran her hands over her body. "He hates mature women, large breasts and males, saying all of them taste nasty."

Judge growled and rushed at MAGES., swinging his scythe at her, only to find that his weapon didn't hit flesh, but rather, open air. Turning, he saw MAGES. sitting on the shaft of his weapon, giving him an amused look.

"Is that all you've got?" MAGES. asked, chuckling. "Perhaps I should get you an auto-aim bot so that you might hit something once in awhile?"

Screaming, Judge slammed his weapon into the ground, destroying parts of it and kicking up a ton of dust in the process.

"Aww..." MAGES. said in a pouty voice. "Now I'll have to fix that when you're done with your temper tantrum." She mock sighed while sitting on his shoulder.

"YOU BITCH, I'LL..."

"Are you toying with him again?" A new voice spoke up and MAGES. disappeared from Judge's shoulder and seemingly teleported to the new speaker.

"I was just having a little fun." MAGES. smiled at the new speaker. "Judge smashed all my little golems that I made for him to break and then he wanted to break me." When the other person rolled their eyes, she pouted. "Come on, Cave, I wasn't going to break him."

"STOP TREATING ME LIKE A JOKE!" Judge yelled and Cave gave him a look of annoyance.

Cave, a tall, fair-skinned woman with red hair in two shoulder-length pigtails and green eyes shook her head. "MAGES., stop antagonizing him." She was wearing black and purple boots that went half-way up her calves with long, black socks that extended to half-way up her thighs. Her hips, large bust and stomach were covered in a skin-tight black body suit with purple trim that looked to be painted on as it left very little to the imagination. On her hands were elbow-length black gloves with red trim. "As for you, Judge," she gave him a tight smile, "I have some interesting information for you."

"What?"

"It seems that someone managed to get through the tornado wall." Cave said and even MAGES. couldn't help but stare in shock.

"But no one's gotten through that since before we were born!" MAGES. protested, knowing that she could do it, possibly, but even that would be hard for someone like her to do.

"Indeed," Cave nodded and turned, her large breasts jiggling with the motion, "if you'll excuse me, I have to report to the CPU." She waved while sauntering off, her butt jiggling with each step.

MAGES. watched her walk off and smirked. "I knew that she liked showing off that glamorous bod of hers." She knew that it was less of that and more of Cave not caring what others thought about her. Though MAGES. suspected that Cave wanted to show off her body to everyone. After all, why would she ask the Madness of Darkness to enchant her clothes so that they were all skin tight and hid nothing to the imagination?

The last time she asked Cave about that, the redhead had simply said that it would be easier to move in if her clothes were practically molded to her skin, but only if they didn't cut off her ability to breathe, which was why she had asked MAGES. to enchant her clothing in the first place.

"Well, now that she's gone..." Judge looked at MAGES. and growled, "I'LL CRUSH YOU, YOU STUPID BITCH!"

MAGES. chuckled as her eyes and the gems on the rings on her fingers started to glow while she floated upwards and the air crackled with magical energy. "Very well, let's see you try."

(-)

As she walked through the corridors, Cave nodded to a few people that she recognized that worked to keep Planeptune working. Turning a corner, she found a transporter and walked onto it. "Basilicom offices."

There was a sensation of her body being transformed into energy before zipping to another transporter pad. After her body returned to normal, Cave shuddered and staggered off the transporter. "Urgh..." She looked up as someone, she didn't know who, offered her a bucket and she put her head over it before vomiting the contents of her stomach. "Thank you." She said as she pulled her head away and took the bottle of water that was offered to her, which she used to wash the taste of vomit out of her mouth. "I'll never get used to that."

"You're either born with the ability to handle it or you're not." The person told her and took the bucket away from Cave to get it cleaned.

Cave nodded and personally thought it wasn't fair that she was one of those who couldn't handle being turned into energy and transported. From what she understood there was about thirty percent of Planeptune's population couldn't handle the transportation system, but considering that was the worst that anyone had to deal with, it was considered acceptable.

Ignoring that, Cave took a deep breath and walked out of the transporter room and headed towards the main offices of the Basilicom.

Privately, Cave thought that offices wasn't accurate at all. While there were people who did office work as they worked on holo-screens and with data-pads, the room itself was huge and in the center was a long and tall stair-case. 'It's more of a Great Hall leading to a throne room than an office.' She thought to herself as she walked past the workers without acknowledging them. As she got to the stairs, she looked up and saw a familiar face coming out of the CPU's main living quarters. "Ah, so Mina was with her today." Cave muttered as she walked up the stairs at a brisk pace while Mina walked down. The two met about two thirds of the way up the stairs. "Hello, Mina. I trust the CPU is in a good mood?"

Mina had a bit of a grin on her face and she nodded. "Yes."

"Good." Cave nodded and walked past her. "I have important information for her." She stopped three steps up and turned back to look at Mina. "You should adjust your bikini bottom, I can see your private parts peeking out." She smirked as Mina had the decency to blush as she adjusted her bikini bottom to cover up properly. Turning away, she walked up the stairs and pressed a button on a communication terminal next to the door.

"What do you want?" The CPU asked her. "I'm kind of tired."

"My lady, I have important information for you." Cave told her. "I'd like to give this to you personally."

"Urgh, fine," there was a sound that made Cave think the CPU was either getting dressed or sliding under her bed covers. "Come in."

Cave nodded and walked into the room. Sitting on a bed large enough for eight people was the CPU of Planeptune. The girl was short, fair-skinned and had spiky hair that was light purple with prominent streaks of red and black all throughout her hair. "Hello, my lady." She bowed to the CPU, who was wearing a large short-sleeved shirt and not much else.

"Would you stop? I hate when people are overly polite to me." The CPU muttered in annoyance. "Stand up, let me stare at your boobs and tell me what's so important that I'm not allowed to sleep today."

Cave stood up and put her hands behind her back while slightly shifting up on her toes so that her chest would stick out a bit more. "Yes..." She wasn't surprised when the CPU openly stared at her breasts. "It seems that some people have managed to get through the tornado wall surrounding Planeptune and have landed on the far edge of the nation."

The CPU blinked a few times, her red and purple eyes seemingly swirling with confusion. "...Interesting. And Cave, call me by my name already."

"Yes... Lady Neptune." Cave said softly.

"So..." Neptune stretched her arms over her head and grimaced as how stiff she was feeling. "What do you know about them and why is it so important to tell me?"

"A fairly large group was in a rather sleek ship that I'm sure you would enjoy." Cave said while shifting slightly so that her breasts would bounce, knowing that Neptune enjoyed seeing that. "From what I was able to tell, there are several women of various ages, a robot and a large rat in the group."

"And?" Neptune asked with a raised eyebrow. "How many?"

"Thirteen in total if we include the rat." Cave told her. "What should we do about them?"

Neptune gave her an annoyed look. "I don't give a flying turtle shell what you do with them. Have Judge and Trick meet them for all I care."

Cave grimaced at the thought of those two meeting anyone. "Um, do we need to send Trick?" The glare she got from Neptune had Cave falling to her ass in pure fear.

"Do what I say, Cave," Neptune's voice was so cold that Cave felt herself shivering as the air temperature dropped dramatically. "Or perhaps I'll have you work with Trick for a month, hmm?"

The sickly sweet smile on Neptune's face only made Cave shiver. "I... I'll get Judge and Trick to check it out."

Neptune nodded and the temperature in the room went back to normal. "Good girl." She slid off the bed and walked over to Cave and patted her on the head. "If you hurry up, I'll give you a good reward."

Cave gulped and scrambled out of the room when Neptune let her go.

Neptune rolled her eyes and walked over to her bed before flopping onto the bed and closing her eyes. "Mmmm... Nothing to do today, time to sleep." She grabbed the blankets and threw them over her body before snuggling into the bed.

"So..." Neptune mused as she laid on the bed. "The one who's been killing the other CPUs finally came, huh?" She knew the only one who could get here through the storm would be the one who was killing the other CPUs.

All the Void of Planeptune knew was that things would certainly get interesting and soon. "She made everything so easy for me, I'll have to thank her personally." A grin came to her face as she thought about just HOW she would thank the other CPU.

To be continued...

* * *

MAGES. is fun. XD


	78. Trick Landings

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

So if you can't figure out MAGES.'s hairstyle, look up Mashiro-tan dance on Youtube and see for yourself.

* * *

Chapter 69

As the ship touched down on a large stone rooftop, everyone sighed in relief that there hadn't been any really crazy incidents. "Who would have guessed that there was a place for flying ships to land?" Neptune asked rhetorically.

"I guess they had people show up at one point." Chrome muttered. "Or maybe they have an air force of their own and expect to land planes and ships at some point."

"Not with that storm out there they don't." Uni pointed out as the group left the cockpit.

Linda was the last one out as she flipped switches and pressed buttons to shut down the ship.

(-)

As they got out of the ship, the group looked out at Planeptune and Neptune was both amazed and dismayed by what she saw.

Instead of buildings and skyscrapers that were way more advanced than anything else in the world, she saw stone and metal everywhere. The place was a multi-layered maze just waiting to be explored. "I know a few people who would love to visit." She muttered as she looked at the city-state more closely.

While there were corridors between the buildings, every single building was connected by arches and sky-ways and the city was just massive in size. "I thought brick buildings couldn't be stacked up this high since brick walls become unstable and fall apart."

"I'm surprised you knew that." Chrome commented, since even she had no idea about that.

"I wanted to make a big castle in my first year as a CPU." Neptune giggled as she remembered that incident. "I built it up really, really tall but then it started wobbling and it fell apart. Histy wasn't amused and made me clean it up."

"Neptuna's silly." Peashy giggled while Uni nodded, amused at the story.

"There's a lot of magic in the air." Rom commented as she closed her eyes. "It's like the whole nation is saturated with magic, but that shouldn't explain..."

"Who knows?" Chrome said as she looked back and saw Linda coming out of the ship. "It shut down?"

"Other than the automatic systems, yeah." Linda nodded as she got off the entrance ramp and hit a remote to cause it to close up.

"So, like..." Neptune stepped in front of everyone and smiled at them. "I've got an announcement." Everyone looked at her in confusion. "I think, since this is the last nation, we should all split up into small groups."

"Huh?!" More than one person voiced their confusion at the same time.

"Well, it's just," Neptune smiled and winked at them while holding up her index finger, "you've all come a long way since we first teamed up." She nodded at Uni. "You too, Uni."

"...I have?" Uni asked, confused.

"Uh huh..." Neptune nodded at her. "So, I was thinking we could try to go in small groups while exploring Planeptune." She noticed Ram was looking nervous and walked over to the smaller girl. "What's wrong, Ram?"

"The last time we split up..." Ram fidgeted, "I nearly hurt big sis," her eyes watered up and she hugged Neptune, "and I nearly hurt Compa and I got a spanking and I don't want that again!"

"Good to see that I'm remembered, chu..." Warechu muttered, though he could understand the nervousness that Ram was feeling.

Neptune smiled and hugged Ram back. "It's okay, Ram. You'll be fine." Ram started to protest and Neptune grabbed her by her shoulders and gently pushed her away so she could look the CPU Candidate in the eye. "You, Rom and Uni came up with that awesome attack against the giant monster, remember?" Ram nodded and Neptune's smile increased in size. "So don't tell me that you think you can't handle something that comes up, okay?" Ram nodded and Neptune looked at the group. "That goes for all of you."

"But if you think you can't handle a situation, try to run away." Chrome pointed out and sighed as she looked at the group and smiled softly as they looked at her. "Neptune's right, all of you have grown since we started." She looked at Linda, IF, Compa and Gust and nodded. "After all, I doubt you four would have tried to help the CPU Candidates back in Lowee, yet all of you helped save them from being brainwashed in Lastation."

"I didn't." IF muttered and Chrome rolled her eyes.

"But you would have if you weren't hurt." Chrome told her. "I think I have to agree with Neptune on this. By now you've experienced enough, both personally and what you've seen others going through to know what to do in plenty of situations."

"So who's going with who?" Compa asked.

"I'll be going with Neptune." Chrome told her. "The two of us have business with that voice here in Planeptune."

"I'll be with Lady Uni." Steamax spoke up and looked at the CPU Candidate, who fidgeted and blushed softly. "Unless you'd rather..."

"No! No! It's fine!" Uni stammered, not minding it at all.

"I'll with with Rom!" Ram went to her twin and grabbed her hand, smiling at her sister. Rom smiled back and squeezed her sister's hand. "We'll be good together."

Neptune looked at the others, wondering how they would do stuff. Seeing Filyn looking somewhat sad, she looked at Peashy, who was looking around with sparkling eyes. "Hey, P-Ko." The little blonde girl turned to look at her. "Why don't you and Filyn go exploring?" Peashy looked at her with wide eyes and Neptune smiled. "You look like you want to go smash something, grab something or just have fun. So why don't you?"

"YAY!" Peashy threw her hands up and hugged Neptune tightly. "I love you, Neptuna!"

Neptune giggled and looked at Gust, Compa and IF. "Hmm, you three, Linda and Warechu... Um..."

"I'll go with IF." Linda said and then looked at Compa. "Why don't you, the rat and bunny go together?"

Gust sighed heavily. "Well, Gust is good at running, but Gust hopes that we won't need to run."

As the group started to spread out and went down the stairs at the corners of the room, Chrome looked at Neptune. "Are you sure about this?"

Neptune sighed and shrugged. "I dunno. I think they'll be okay. But they have to go out on their own soon, right?" Idly, Neptune wondered if those Candidates could ever achieve HDD, since they were born from Fearicite and not Sharicite. "...Hey, Chrome?" She asked while giving Chrome a look of uncertainty.

"Yes?"

"Do you think that they'll be able to go HDD?" Neptune asked and Chrome twitched. "What?"

"You ask that NOW?!" Chrome bopped Neptune on the head, causing Neptune to let out a yelp of pain and rub her head. "As for if they can or not... I don't know."

"...Let's find Histy, she can probably tell us."

Chrome nodded and the two left the rooftop.

(-)

In another part of Planeptune...

Cave grimaced as she swished her mouth again. "Blasted teleportation." She really hated how she couldn't handle it, even if she got sick to her stomach after each teleportation, the amount of time needed to recover was still less than the length of time it took to travel to distant locations on foot.

Taking a deep breath, she opened a large stone door and walked into a dank, dimly lit room.

"HMM?!" A voice that was distinctly male, but obnoxious. Cave shuddered as she saw the large, fat and yellow robot with a eyes that just screamed creepy and a mouth full of sharp, jagged teeth. "What do we have here? Bah!" He scoffed as he looked at Cave. "Some old woman with flabby tits?"

Cave felt her eyebrow twitching. "My breasts are not flabby, sir. I take good care of them, there's no sag."

"Not yet." The robot chuckled. "Now if you were like this little cutie, I might care." He shuffled to the side and turned and Cave fought the urge to shudder as she saw a brown-haired girl who looked like she was eight years old, who was chained up to the wall and completely naked while covered in slobber.

The girl raised her head in a slow, jerking motion. "H...Help me, nyu..."

"Sir Trick," Cave gave him a pleading look. "Please, let her go."

"Now, now..." Trick said while slurping his tongue. "I have to make sure that this cutie is completely clean and safe."

"What did I do, Nyu?" The little girl asked, confusion and hurt in her voice.

"Hmm..." Trick tapped his chin. "Actually, that's a very good question. I think I've had enough fun anyway. I'll let you go now."

The girl gave him a grateful smile. "T...thank you, Nyu. Broccoli will never do bad things ever again."

"No..." Trick's voice suddenly deepened. "You won't."

Cave winced as Trick's tongue lashed out and snapped the restraints holding Broccoli up while his tongue wrapped around the little girl's body. "Please! Sir Trick! I beg you! Don't!"

Trick chuckled as he threw his head back and his tongue unfurled while launching Broccoli up into the air. "Because you won't have a chance to do anything bad ever again!"

Broccoli's eyes widened in fear as she fell down, straight down, into Trick's open jaw. "NOOOO!"

There was a slamming sound of metal, followed by a sickening crunch and Cave screwed her eyes shut as she heard a grinding and crunching sound for the next minute.

"MMMM!" Trick turned to look at Cave, who opened her mouth and nearly threw up at the brown hair stuck between Trick's teeth and the blood coming out of his mouth. "Little cuties taste the best!"

"Yes... Well... The CPU has a job for you." Cave said while trying to not piss herself in fear. She was typically pretty brave, but compared to this monster, she knew she was just cannon fodder. "It involves some cute girls who are invading Planeptune."

"...Reeaaaaalllly?" Trick asked, his voice showing far more enthusiasm than Cave would have liked. "HOHOHOHOHOHO! I can't wait to meet them!" He bounced around happily as Cave took the shaking of the room as her cue to get the hell out of there. "Just wait for me, cuties! Papa Trick is coming for you!"

To be continued...

* * *

...And I thought Trick was creepy AF in canon. o.o

On a more serious note, I somehow managed to get a cyst that got infected and I got sick because of it. While it's gone now, I lost 4 days of writing because of it. Not going to post much (if at all) the rest of this week because of it.


	79. Meetings

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 70

It was almost two hours after the group had split up and went their separate ways that Uni found herself walking through another set of corridors that took her into a large, open room with lots of people moving around and mulling about their daily lives. And even though the people seemed a little... Pale, probably from the lack of sunlight, they seemed to be doing decently well for themselves. Uni hadn't seen anyone wearing extremely ratty clothing, unlike what she had seen in the slums of Lastation. 'Then again, we're pretty high up, huh?' She wondered if Planeptune was like Lastation and the more affluent people lived up on top while the poorer people lived closer to the bottom. "I wonder if that's a metaphor or something."

"What's a metaphor, Lady Uni?" Steamax asked. "And before you say, I do know the meaning, but I was wondering what you were referring to."

Uni looked at him with a wry grin. "Well, the fact that the richest people live on the top of Lastation while all the poor people live on the bottom," she turned to look at where she was walking so she wouldn't trip over something, "I think it means something, but OOOF!" She yelled out as she turned a corner and ran into someone. She would have fallen onto her butt had Steamax not been there to grab her. "Thanks."

"Ouchies!" A female voice caught Uni's attention and she looked at the person she crashed into. The first thing that caught her attention was the rather... Exposed French Maid outfit the person was wearing, including stockings and even a garter belt with lacy white panties. "EEK!" The girl blushed hard and sat up, putting her hand over her skirt to hide her underwear.

"Ah!" Uni's eyes went white and blank. "Sorry!" She felt her face flushing out of embarrassment. "I didn't mean to." She took another look at the girl and was rather amazed at the light purple eyes and long hair that was light purple in color and... "Hey, you look kind of like Neptune."

The girl jerked in surprise. "You know my big sister?" She had a confused look on her face as she looked at Uni and Steamax. "...That's odd, I usually know who my sister has as special guests." Her eyes widened and she jumped back and pointed a finger at Uni. "Wait! Are you another person my sister wants for her fun time?"

"Uh..." Uni and Steamax both had no clue how to answer that as the girl started to pace side to side.

"Big sis keeps saying that she doesn't want me taking over, but is she just going to throw me away and only keep me for eye-candy? Nnnnngh! It's not fair!"

"Lady Uni, I think it's safe to assume that this is the CPU Candidate of Planeptune."

"Then..." Uni frowned softly. "Didn't Neptune say that the name should be... Nep...Gear?"

"Yes?" The girl stopped muttering to herself and instantly looked at Uni. "What do you want?"

Uni was taken aback by how Nepgear felt almost subservient as soon as she heard her name. "Ah, I was trying to figure out your name. I'm sorry."

"Oh." Nepgear smiled at her. "That's fine. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. It's not like sis kept me a secret or anything." She giggled and rubbed the back of her head.

"Yep, you sure do act like Neptune." Uni muttered and wondered if Neptune was right in warning them that there might be someone who looked and sounded like her but wasn't nice and friendly.

"I do?" Nepgear asked, confused. "But I know sis doesn't act like this. Or does she?" Nepgear asked, tilting her head to the side. "She is pretty random, but then again..."

"Perhaps we should explain before you get more confused?" Steamax suggested to Nepgear, who nodded rapidly at him. "We know of a CPU who has the name of Neptune and who would love to meet you."

"Sis wants to meet me?" Nepgear asked, confused. "But I just saw her this morning, so why would..?" Her eyes widened and she fidgeted. "I hope that she's not mad."

"I think we need to explain more fully." Uni muttered softly and proceeded to explain things to Nepgear.

"Ah!" Nepgear's eyes widened after the explanation and she slapped a fist into an open palm. "So you're the CPU Candidate from Lastation and you came with the other CPU Candidates and a couple of CPUs to Planeptune?" Uni nodded, glad that she got it. "But I don't understand what you mean by another world."

"Well..." Uni muttered to herself, "this might be a long conversation." She sighed when Nepgear giggled nervously.

(-)

In another part of Planeptune...

"Ram!" Rom's eyes sparkled as she looked at the cooking stalls. "Look!" She pointed to some skewers that were cooking over open fires. "Those look good."

"Yeah." Rom licked her lips as she smelled them. "Come on!" The two ran over to the stall. When they got there, a portly woman smiled at them.

"Well, hello cuties. I've never seen you two around here." She said to them. "Then again, Planeptune is pretty big. So, what can I get for you?"

Before Rom or Ram could speak up, a new voice spoke up. "I'll have some dango sticks." Rom and Ram both turned to see a woman with blue hair standing behind them with an amused smile at the other woman. "It's been awhile Masa."

"Ah!" The woman's eyes widened and she smiled. "Hey, MAGES., how are you?"

"I'm fine." MAGES. smiled at Masa and looked at Rom and Ram. "Well, aren't you two little cuties?" She knelt down and pinched their cheeks, pulling on them and getting a cry of pain from the twins. "It's a good thing a certain someone isn't around, otherwise things would go bad very fast."

Masa visibly grimaced at the insinuation of the person in question. "Don't bring him up. Whenever you do, he seems to show up."

MAGES. let go of Rom and Ram's cheeks and giggled at Masa. "It's fine, here's your credits." She handed over the money and took the dango sticks from Masa. "Anyway," she took a bite of one and smiled, "yum, seems like there's some horribly ruthless invaders into Planeptune." An amused look crossed her face as she said that.

"They got through the tornado wall that your ancestors created?" Masa stared at MAGES. in shock. "That... That's rather impressive."

"I know," MAGES. took another bite of her dango stick. "Of course," she looked at Ram and Rom with an amused smile, "powerful little mages might have helped in that regard, hmm?" She leaned in close to them. "So what do a couple of outsiders want in Planeptune?"

"...We heard it was a nice place to visit?" Rom tried.

MAGES. suddenly broke into laughter. "Oh wow! Whoever told you that was lying their butts off to your face." Her amusement dropped from her face as she looked at them seriously. "Sorry to say, but since you're not from here, you'll need to be taken to the CPU."

"And if we don't want to go?" Ram asked, trembling as she felt a sudden spike of magic power from the woman. "Uh..."

"Then we do it the fun way." MAGES. said as she put her hand over her face while her eyes and hair started to glow. "Prepare yourself, you face the Madness of Darkness, MAGES., herself!"

"HEY!" Masa yelled at MAGES., who looked at her. "You can't fight here! You'll break something!" Around them people were looking nervous and ready to run off in fear.

"...Fair point." MAGES. conceded as her glowing stopped and she walked off, swaying her hips while the magic power in the atmosphere returned to normal. "Well, I'll just meet you two later in a place we can fight."

"Uh..." Rom looked at Masa, who gave her a stern look.

"Never, ever, EVER pick a fight with MAGES.. The only way things could be worse for you is if you had pissed off the CPU." Masa warned them.

"Is she... A bad person?" Ram asked nervously. Her nervousness gave way to confusion when Masa shook her head. "Huh?"

"MAGES. is a good kid, at least I think so, but she's unpredictable." Masa told them as she gave them a neutral look. "Sometimes her idea of a fight is simply to tie someone up and tickle them until they pass out or wet their pants. Sometimes she plays games. And sometimes she fights seriously."

"...Is it bad?" Rom asked.

"Very bad." Masa nodded.

"How bad?" Ram asked.

"If she fought seriously, she would turn this whole food court into a pile of ash, including us." Masa told them.

"That's bad." The twins said at the same time, their faces pale as they looked around and imagined destroyed carts, dead bodies and all the yummy looking food wasted.

"So just don't antagonize her." Masa told them. "She's one of the CPU Knights."

"CPU Knights?" Rom asked, confused and Masa nodded.

"Yes. Powerful fighters that are close to the CPU. Besides her, there's Judge and... Well, one other one, but we don't talk about him." Masa looked around and sighed. "He's a real creep, pervs out on little girls and likes to lick them all over."

"EWW!" The two girls grimaced in disgust.

"There's also a few more people who apparently are close to the CPU, but they aren't members of the CPU Knights." Masa told them. "Just be careful, okay?" The two nodded and Masa handed them some food skewers. "This is on me, but be good, okay?"

"Um..." Ram fidgeted slightly. "Thank you. Can you tell us about the CPU?"

Masa sighed softly. "She's... Capricious is the best way to put it. Some days she's the nicest person in the world. Other days she'll torment you for simply farting in the same room as her."

"...Torment, how?" Rom asked, curious and dreading it was something with beating.

"Well, the last time she did that, she tied a person up and locked them in a room with smelly cheeses and onions for a day." Masa shrugged at the looks Rom and Ram were giving her. "One time someone made her drop her ice cream onto the ground. She picked it off the ground and dumped it down the front of the person's pants."

"She sounds very petty." Ram muttered, getting a nod from Rom.

"Well, those are when she's in a good mood. I once saw her trip over a loose rock and then she not only destroyed all loose rocks in the area, she killed anyone who laughed at her." Masa shrugged at the looks of shock. "Like I said, capricious. You never know what you're getting with her."

"Okay, thank you." Rom smiled at her. "We'll be careful."

Masa smiled back and watched as they walked off. "I hope so." She whispered to herself. She really hoped that they wouldn't fight MAGES., the girl was good, if a bit odd and playful, but when she set her mind to breaking something...

...Well, it tended to get broken.

To be continued...

* * *

Well, that wasn't a very long chapter. Sure seems longer when I look at the word count. Oh well.


	80. Parks and Rec

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 71

"So do you have any clue where we're going?" Chrome asked as she and Neptune aimlessly walked down the streets of Planeptune.

"Not really," Neptune shrugged as she looked at the people on the streets. Most of them gave her curious, though nervous looks when they saw her looking back at them. "...Do you think..."

"Your counterpart is probably the CPU of Planeptune." Chrome told her, sighing softly. "I really hope that you don't look exactly like her."

"Probably not." Neptune smiled at Chrome. "Blanc and Noire had different hair colors and Vert had a different hair style, so maybe I'll be lucky?"

"And..." Chrome stopped as she saw the saddened look on Neptune's face. "What's wrong?"

"I was... Kind of hoping it was Uzume that was the CPU here." Neptune sighed softly. "I mean, if I have to fight myself, what does that say about me as a main character?"

Chrome gave her an amused look. "One who does what all good main characters do and fights her evil mirror-verse self?" Her amusement increased as Neptune giggled at that. "So how about we..?"

"Please stop messing around." A voice that they both recognized, spoke up in their heads. "I see that you are in Planeptune now."

"That's right, Histy." Neptune smiled as she and Chrome continued to walk while talking to Histoire.

"You can talk in your mind, I'll hear it. But if you wish to get to me, it would be fastest if you took a transporter."

"So it'll drop us off right where you are?" Chrome asked softly.

"You won't get directly to me, but I will have you dropped off in a place not far from me."

The two looked at each other and shrugged before asking for directions for the nearest transporter. After all, it would be best if they could get to Histoire as soon as they could. Chrome wanted to meet the mysterious figure that she had heard about in the past and Neptune wanted to meet Histoire so she could set up a communication link with her Histoire and see her friends and family again.

(-)

In another part of Planeptune...

Sitting on an outdoor bench, Nepgear nodded as she listened to Uni and Steamax explain what was going on. "I see, so that's what you mean by another world." Her eyes had a look of awe in them as she thought about other dimensions, other versions of her sister or even just the thought of traveling to other Planeptunes filled her mind. "It must be really lovely to go to other dimensions."

"I dunno," Uni muttered as she rubbed the back of her head. "Seems like a big pain in the ass to me. I mean, getting uprooted and being away from those you love..." She sighed as she thought about her sister. "...Then again, I'm in the same boat, huh?"

"Huh?" Nepgear looked at Uni, who was looking sadder with each moment. "Are you from another world too?"

Uni shook her head. "I told you, I'm from Lastation, it's just..." Her eyes teared up, "my sister was murdered recently and I was there... When she died."

"Lady Uni..." Steamax put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It's okay."

"I had a funeral for her and everything, Steamax!" Uni looked at him, tears falling out of her eyes. "It still hurts!"

"You really cared for her, huh?" Nepgear said softly and Uni turned to look at the other CPU Candidate. Smiling gently, she gently took Uni's hand into hers and squeezed it softly. "I think that your sister would be really happy to know that you love her so much."

Uni smiled at that. "Thanks." She rubbed the tears out of her eyes. "Darn it, I'm trying not to be a big crybaby but..."

"Lady Uni, what happened was only a few short months ago." Steamax pointed out to her. "It can take a normal person years to recover from such an experience. I'd say you're doing just fine."

Nepgear smiled and suddenly stood up. "I apologize, but I do need to get back to my sister." Both Uni and Steamax looked at her and she fidgeted. "She gets... Anxious if I'm gone for too long."

"...Anxious how?" Uni asked.

"Well..." Nepgear trailed off and looked up while tapping her chin. "The last time she got anxious, she tried her hand at chemistry."

"...What happened?" Uni asked, knowing that something odd had to have happened.

"Well, she created an explosive chemical that destroyed the room, turned plants into flying monsters and somehow made spaghetti and meatballs come to life and try to strangle half the population of Planeptune." Uni and Steamax both gawked at her. "That was just a few months ago." Nepgear giggled softly. "No one was hurt... Except those allergic to garlic."

Uni stared at Nepgear, her face showing her disbelief. "...How?"

Nepgear shook her head. "My sister never told me how, I just know what happened later." She bowed to Uni. "Thanks for the talk, I'll see if I can get my sister to call her Knights off."

"Knights?" Uni asked, confusion on her face.

"Three people who my sister uses as her personal security force." Nepgear told her. "Excuse me." She walked off and both Uni and Steamax looked at each other.

"...Can you follow her without being seen?" Uni asked.

"Of course." Steamax nodded before standing up and walking off towards where Nepgear was. When he turned a corner, he seemingly vanished into thin air.

"So..." Uni muttered to herself. "We met the CPU Candidate, found out the CPU has personal security forces... What next?"

(-)

"WOW!" Peashy yelled as she looked around, her eyes sparkling in delight. "Lookie!"

Filyn scratched her head in confusion as she saw children climbing on some stuff while adults sat nearby and watched them. "It's just playground equipment. Monkey bars, slides and other stuff, so I'm not seeing... Peashy?" She looked at where Peashy was...

Or rather, had been, and saw nothing.

"Lookie!" Peashy yelled and Filyn turned to stare Peashy was sitting on a nearby swing-set, smiling. "...How does this work?"

Filyn sighed and walked over to give Peashy a push and explain how to make the swing work. When Peashy got the swing to work on her own, Filyn stepped away before looking at the open one next to Peashy's swing. "Well, just... Oh heck!" She got on the swing and started moving on her own.

"WHEE! I wanna go over the bar!" Peashy yelled in delight before yelping as the chain seemingly went slack and she dropped down a bit. "HUH?!" Her eyes were wide, though she didn't stop pumping the swing she was on.

"Yeah, that happens if you try to go over it." Filyn told her while moving on her swing. "You don't hurt yourself that way then."

"Oh." Peashy pouted as she had wanted to know what it was like to go over the top of a swing. "Okay!" She grinned as another idea came to her.

Before Filyn could ask what Peashy had in mind, the blonde girl, as soon as the swing was as far out as it would go, launched herself off of it and flew through the air with a cheer of joy before landing on her feet and stumbling forward into a soft pile of dirt on the ground. "Hahahahahahaha! That was fun!" Peashy, covered in dirt, looked at Filyn and waved her hands. "Come on! Jump! It's fun!"

Filyn had an uncertain look on her face, but she took a deep breath and did what Peashy asked of her. Sadly for Filyn, she mistimed when she should have jumped off and ended up only a foot away from the swing while tripping from the momentum and falling flat on her face with a loud splat.

"Ahahahahahahaha!" Peashy laughed as she got up and ran to Filyn. "You still can't see right!"

Filyn groaned in pain and gave Peashy a dirty look. "You could have asked if I was okay, you know?"

The laughter and joy from the other CPU Candidate quickly died off. "I'm sorry." Peashy looked ashamed of herself.

Filyn sighed and saw how Peashy looked like a cute, adorable puppy that she had accidentally kicked before getting up and giving her a hug. "It's okay, but don't laugh when someone falls on their face, okay?"

Peashy nodded and Filyn let go of the hug. "Okay..." She looked around and was confused as a crowd started forming not too far away from them. "What's going on?"

"I dunno, let's find out." Filyn said and the two ran towards the gathering crowds.

When they got close, they heard someone speaking up. "...And for your own safety, as well as the safety of your children, I must ask that all of you stay inside as much as possible for the next few days." A woman was speaking, though Filyn and Peashy couldn't see her.

"Lady Cave," a middle-aged woman spoke up, "all of the Knights?"

"Yes," Cave answered her, "I personally delivered the message to Sir Trick. So, please, make sure that all of you stay inside and out of sight for a few days. When things are clear, there will be a message sent out across Planeptune."

There was some grumbling and murmuring, but the crowd quickly started to break up, with children crying and people gathering their things and quickly leaving for their homes.

Cave sighed as the crowd broke up. "I'm really sorry." She whispered to herself, knowing that she ruined a few people's days with that information. "But this is all I can do."

"So why are you upset?" A familiar voice had Cave's eyes widening as she spun around to see MAGES. behind her, giving her an amused look. "You're the head of the security forces, aren't you? Part of your job is to keep the people safe. Even if it's from the moronic duo."

"MAGES., why are you here?" Cave asked, a look of resignation on her face as she waited for some insane reason.

"Can't I say hi to my oldest and bestest friend?" MAGES. asked, a genuinely hurt look on her face and in her voice that had Cave wincing. "Come on, Cave, we used to play together here all the time."

"Until you were taken in by the CPU because she saw your potential with magic." Cave reminded MAGES., "so why are you here?"

"Well," MAGES. began, "I was waiting for two cute girls, both with loads of magic in them, to show up so I can play with them." She giggled at Cave's grimace. "Oh, don't worry, I wouldn't use anything that would destroy the park. I figure they'll be here soon enough."

"I see," Cave nodded, "well, that's good, but I..."

"Cave, I..." MAGES. hesitated for a moment and nodded, "I want you to join the Knights." Cave jerked in surprise. "You're a really good worker and I know that you'll do well. Plus I'd rather have someone like you to deal with than just a crazed asshole and a sick freak."

"And I would be restricted to doing what I feel is right by the CPU, you know that." Cave told her. "When was the last time you were allowed to do what you wanted?"

"Technically, I'm allowed to do whatever I want." MAGES. pointed out to her while grinning and winking at her. "Though I am restricted on the use of my magic unless Lady Neptune says it's..." She trailed off and tilted her head to the side as she saw two people looking at her curiously. "Yes?"

"You know Neptuna?" The blonde girl asked in confusion. "But Neptuna never said she knew you."

"Um..." The girl with red hair in long twin-tails spoke up, "Peashy, I think these might be the evil Neptune's people."

"Oh." Peashy pouted. "Evil Neptuna is not nice!"

Cave sweat-dropped as she thought about something that she had gone through as punishment from the CPU. "Well, she can be kind of mean, huh? I didn't like being tied up and a bunch of ants dumped in my panties." The itchiness was simply unbearable, especially since she wasn't allowed to do anything for over ten minutes.

"The alternative was to dump tar and feathers all over you." MAGES. pointed out helpfully, getting a flat stare from Cave as a result. "Anyway, Neptuna?" MAGES. gave Peashy an amused look. "I'm sure that she'd love that kind of a nickname." Her eyes started to glow as she snapped her fingers. "I know!" She pointed at Cave. "Take them to see the CPU."

"...Are we being captured?" Filyn asked in confusion. "The last time that happened I tried to kill my big sister and got a cybernetic eye as a result."

"AHHH!" Peashy screamed and put her hands on her head. "Pea doesn't want a scary pokey to get her again!"

"Well..." MAGES. had an amused look on her face as she saw the antics of the blonde girl, "you could always go along willingly. Call Lady Neptune your cute nickname for her and I'm sure that she'll start cuddling you... Or torture you until you get her name right."

Cave sighed as the two girls suddenly tensed up. "Don't listen to her. Listen, if you go and just want to say hello she's generally pretty nice about that. ...Except for that one time she decided to read some poetry."

"To be fair," MAGES. had a look of disgust on her face as she recalled that incident, "that fucker had it coming."

"But why did the rest of us have to suffer as well?" Cave asked, shuddering in disgust. "If I ever find out who the Vogons are, I shall murder all of them for their horrible poetry."

"So..." Filyn spoke up, "are we free to go?"

"Sure," MAGES. smiled at them. "Though, if you leave, I can't guarantee that something bad won't happen to you."

"Judge is nearby, isn't he?" Cave asked, getting a nod from MAGES., which caused her to sigh and look at Peashy and Filyn seriously. "Listen, either you come with me or you'll have a psychotic murder bot who will destroy this entire place for fun while laughing and then everyone will be sad and I'll have a headache for days."

Filyn sighed and looked around before looking back at Cave. "...No brainwashing?"

Cave sighed heavily. "As far as I know, Lady Neptune doesn't do brainwashing and no one is crazy or stupid enough to try something like that around here."

"The last time someone tried to give her eggplants she made them run in a giant hamster wheel for three days straight."

"I don't think I want to meet the other Neptuna." Peashy commented and stepped away from the two. "She sounds bad."

"Well, I can't say that I didn't warn..." MAGES. began as another voice interrupted her.

"There she is!" Rom yelled out as she spotted MAGES., "and... Filyn?! Peashy?!"

"What are you doing here?" Ram asked, confused and she looked around as Filyn pointed at the swings. "...Oh." She giggled and rubbed the back of her head. "Swings are lots of fun."

"I know!" Filyn, Peashy and MAGES. all said at the same time. The kids looked at the blue-haired woman, who merely winked at them.

"They're trying to make us go see the bad Neptuna!" Peashy pointed to MAGES. and Cave, both of whom gave her a flat stare.

"Well, looks like we might have to do this the hard way after all." MAGES. said. "Oh, and Cave, I lied about Judge. I left him tied up."

(-)

Elsewhere...

"THAT BITCH!" Judge screamed as he was pinned to the ground with magic energy ropes all over his body. He struggled to get off the ground and found it wasn't possible. "I swear, I'll kill her when I get out of here!"

(-)

"I... See..." Cave said, wondering why MAGES. would do that, but shrugged it off as she looked at the four girls. "Do we really need to do this the hard way?"

MAGES. shrugged at her. "No, but I'm not risking getting the CPU mad at me because I didn't bring her some of the intruders." The blue-haired girl suddenly started sulking and pouting. "When Lady Nepgear didn't get home on time and I was supposed to bring her home, I got punished for it."

"...How?" Ram asked, curious as to what MAGES. had gone through.

"She snuck into my room when I was sleeping and put my hand in a bowl of water." MAGES. cried in dismay. "Do you know what happens to someone when they have their hand in a bowl of water when they're sleeping?!" The four kids shook their heads and MAGES. face turned red. "I'm not telling you!"

"That childish prank?" Cave asked in amusement as MAGES. looked away in a huff while crossing her arms over her chest.

MAGES. suddenly snapped her fingers. "Okay, I changed my mind!" She grinned and looked at Rom and Ram. "You two! Let's have some fun."

"Oh brother." Cave rubbed her eyes and turned to walk away. "Just don't blow up the equipment this time, okay?" She sighed heavily as MAGES.'s eyes and hair started to glow while power built up all around her.

"Aren't you going to stop her?" Filyn asked and Cave gave her a look that suggested the redhead was stupid.

"Nope." Cave said while walking away. "I'm not suicidal."

Peashy frowned as she looked at MAGES. and she ran at the blue-haired girl. "Pea doesn't want to, huh?" Her eyes widened as MAGES. disappeared before reappearing in front of her. Her eyes bugged out as she was kicked in the stomach so hard that her arms and legs were extended outwards and her mouth opened from the pain and shock while her tongue stuck out and she went flying away from MAGES. and crashed into a nearby slide. However, her momentum was so intense that she slid upwards on the slide before flying to the top of a roof over picnic benches.

"Peashy?!" Filyn yelled and ran to where the blonde girl was. "Hold on!"

Lowering her leg, MAGES. shook her head. "I do so hate to use physical force. It's so... Dull." She started to grin at Rom and Ram. "So, now that the distractions are out of the way, it's time to play. Come!" Putting a hand to her face, her rings started to glow. "Allow the Madness of Darkness herself to teach you some fun lessons!"

"DARN YOU!" Rom screamed as lightning crackled around her and she snapped her hands forward, sending several bolts of lightning at MAGES., who merely smirked and held up her left hand while the ring on her pinky finger glowed with power.

Rom and Ram both watched in shock as the attack crashed into a barrier and was seemingly sucked into the ring that MAGES. had on. "Then..." Ram held out her hand. "Inferno twister!"

"Oh ho?" MAGES. had an amused expression on her face and in her voice as the ring on her right thumb glowed red while the ring on her middle left finger glowed green and the twins could only watch in dismay as the attack fizzled into nothingness before it got to the blue-haired woman. "You two are interesting." She had a serene smile on her face. "So much potential, but..." Her face became serious while the rings that she had used before continued to glow, "you need some serious practice." A quick flex of her fingers had lightning pop out of her ring and take the form of a large cat while the fire swirled and formed into a bat-like creature and finally green energy spun around and took the form of a large bear. "See?" MAGES. smiled at them. "Electric kitty, windy bear and a flame bat, it's easy to do if you know what you're doing." She snapped her fingers and the ground between Rom and Ram suddenly erupted upwards, creating a wall between them. "Kitty, bear, bat, go play with that one," she pointed at Ram, "I've got a date with the other little girl."

Shockingly, since those creatures were energy constructs and not real, they let out cries and rushed after Ram while MAGES. walked towards Rom.

Rom was on her knees and glaring at MAGES., "grrr... Fine!"

MAGES. raised an eyebrow as the air itself seemed to get charged with static electricity. "Interesting, it's almost like you're..." She trailed off as lightning started to crash around her. "Yep, figured." MAGES. took a step back as Rom held a hand out, her eyes glowing white as the air started to get filled with snow and ice started to form all around her. "I see..." She narrowed her eyes. "Okay, this needs to stop." She ran straight at Rom, seemingly unaffected by the ice and snow coming her way.

Rom's eyes widened as MAGES. was right in front of her. "What are, OWW!" She cried out as MAGES. flicked her forehead with her middle finger. "What was that for?!" She rubbed her forehead even as the snow and ice attack stopped.

"You're being an idiot." MAGES. told her and jumped over a retaliatory lightning blast as she reached out with her hands to do a hand-stand on Rom's head while doing the splits with her legs in mid-air. "Powering your magic with your anger?" MAGES. asked rhetorically and pushed herself off just as Rom tried to send a surge of electrical power through the blue-haired woman. "Such a foolish idea." She said while softly landing on her feet behind Rom.

Rom spun around and MAGES. gave her a look of disappointment. "What would you know?! You didn't have to put up with the stuff I did in my life!"

"Everyone's life is unique and different." MAGES. pointed out and one of her rings glowed brown before Rom found herself buried into the ground up to her shoulders.

"HEY!" Rom screamed while struggling to move and discovering that she could only move her head. "Let me go!"

MAGES. walked over to Rom and knelt down to look at her. "Now maybe you'll listen to me?" Rom gave her a look of absolute fury and MAGES. sighed. "That's what I'm talking about. While using your anger to power your attacks works in the short run, it's hindering your ability to use your magic fully." She sighed and stood up. "I've seen what happens to people who get consumed by their anger..." Her eyes were full of sadness and she shook her head. "It's not fun."

The dirt wall near them broke apart to reveal Ram on her butt and trembling while the bear stood above her, growling. "Enough!" MAGES. snapped her fingers and all of the constructs disappeared instantly. Looking at Ram, who had tears in her eyes, she shook her head. "And that girl has the opposite problem... She's too passive and shy." She walked over to Ram and, with a sudden smirk on her face, reached down and snaked her hand under the waist-band of Ram's pants and grabbed her underwear, pulling up and giving the girl a massive wedgie.

"AAAAIIIIEEE!" Ram screamed as it felt like her underwear was being forced into her crotch. "LEMME GO! LEMME GO!" She grabbed MAGES. arm but found the older woman was really strong and didn't budge even as she felt her underwear start to strain and tear slightly.

"You're too passive." MAGES. told Ram. "You and your sister have a lot of power and potential." She let go of Ram, who immediately tried to fix her underwear and make it more comfortable and her ring glowed brown again, allowing Rom out of the ground, "but you're too passive and meek to use your full power. You need to have some confidence in yourself." She looked at Rom, who was glowering at her. "And you need to check your temper before you destroy those you care about." She waved and jumped onto the slide that Peashy had been kicked onto before jumping away.

"My..." Cave shook her head in amazement. "She went easy on you." She turned and started to walk away while swaying her hips and waving her hand. "If you want to have a rematch against her, I recommend getting better. She is the strongest of the Knights after all." She stopped at the edge of the park and turned her head. "We'll be at the Basilicom. Oh, and I don't recommend being here for too long, unless you want Sir Trick to find you."

To be continued...

* * *

...Since when do Maker characters beat CPUs?


	81. Histoire

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Time for the long waited meeting

* * *

Chapter 72

"Hey, Histy..." Neptune spoke up as she stepped over a metal pipe. "Are you sure this is the fast way?"

"I never said that this would be a fast way to get to me, but rather a safe way." Histoire replied to Neptune.

Chrome said nothing as she and Neptune walked along a narrow pathway next to running water. Or rather, what should have been water. Chrome personally thought it looked more like sludge than water. "So we need to go through the sewers? Ugh, I need a shower after this."

"Rest assured, I have enough ability to clean you after you get through this."

"Um, Histy..." Neptune said to the voice. "Are you sure we need to go this way?"

"Would you rather fight through the security forces of Planeptune? Could you stomach the fact you'll have to kill people who are only doing their job?"

Neptune sighed at the voice. "Fair point." The thought of killing people who weren't bad guys disgusted her. And beyond that, these were citizens of Planeptune.

_"But they betrayed me. Even though they created me, they saw me as an inconvenient, frightening abhorrent existence!"_

Neptune sighed softly. 'If I killed people like that, would I end up like Kurome?' While she hadn't seen the spirit of her predecessor's evil side in some time, she couldn't help but feel like something was...

"NEPTUNE!" Chrome yelled, causing Neptune to almost jump into the sludgy water. When Neptune glared at her, she pointed to a ladder. "The voice says to climb this."

"Sorry." Neptune muttered as Chrome had her climb up first. "Hey, Chrome... When this is over, you want to come visit my world?"

"I might." Chrome told her. "I think I'll wait a few years though. Someone has to help the CPU Candidates become good CPUs. Plus Uni could really use some help with Lastation. I'm sure that we can get some people to help Rom, Ram and Peashy with their nations."

"Makes sense, I suppose." Neptune said softly and the two climbed up the ladder in silence.

(-)

Meanwhile at the park...

After getting Peashy down and healing her, Ram looked at Rom, who was sitting on a nearby swing with a sullen look on her face. "Rom?" She asked as she walked over to her twin while Filyn and Peashy followed her. "Are you okay?"

"NO!" Rom yelled in frustration, causing Ram to flinch. "Sorry, it's just... We fought that giant monster and the next area we get to has someone who can just kick our butts?!"

"Probably a major level difference." Filyn pointed out to Rom. She sighed when Rom gave her an angry look. "That's all I can think of. Or it was just a hopeless boss fight. Those sometimes happen you know?"

"But why did it have to happen to us?" Rom asked, thinking about what that woman had said to her about her anger. 'Is she right?' She knew that Neptune had taken the time to get her out of a situation when she started to get mad, but at the time she didn't think much of it.

"Hey!" Peashy yelled at Rom, who looked at the smaller girl. "Neptuna doesn't like it when we get sad, right?" Rom was about to answer when Peashy spoke again. "Neptuna's been really sad because of... Um..."

"Fearicite." Filyn pointed out and Peashy nodded.

"Yeah! That!" Peashy nodded and pointed at Rom. "Neptuna feels sad because of it, we're not supposed to be sad, right?"

"But..." Rom tried to protest and Peashy stamped her foot on the ground, creating a small crater.

"But what?! If we're weak, we need to get stronger!"

"...And how can we do that?" Rom asked, getting a confused look from Peashy as she didn't know either.

"Well..." Filyn suddenly spoke up. "Why don't we go see if there's a place where we can do adventure-like jobs or something? IF mentioned something about a guild or something back before she moved to the outpost."

Rom scratched her head. "Well, I guess that could work, but where do we find a guild?"

"Ask directions?" Filyn suggested. "I don't know, I'm just suggesting an idea here."

Ram shrugged and looked around. "Well, let's go that way." She pointed to a random direction. "Maybe we'll meet some people who can help us?"

"Sure." Filyn agreed as the four girls walked in that direction.

(-)

Elsewhere...

Cave was hiding behind a car as she watched the four girls walk off in a random direction. "Guild work, huh?" She muttered to herself, her listening devices picking up on the conversation. 'They don't seem like they're here to cause problems.' Then again, she wasn't sure what they were here for, since the intelligence just told her that they were in Planeptune and they were from elsewhere in Gamworld. Opening her phone, she made a phone call. "Hey, it's me. Look, there's four little girls looking to do some guild work. They caught the attention of MAGES. and she let them go, so they want to get stronger for a rematch. Yeah, insane I know, but they don't know her like we do. I'm in the park district. They're heading East from park thirty-five. Have an agent guide them to the nearest transporter. No, I'm not going to be coming any time soon. I like my stomach to stay in my body, thank you very much. It's a figure of speech and you know that!" Cave huffed in frustration. "Anyway, get them some jobs that'll help them level up that can be done quickly. Don't mention me. I don't know why MAGES. let them go, she's MAGES., trying to figure out her thought processes is like trying to figure out how to fly without wings."

Cave nodded and hung up the phone. "What's going to happen next, I wonder?"

(-)

At the Basilicom...

"I'm back, sis!" Nepgear called out as she got to the top of the stairs that led to her sister's room.

"Nepgear!" Neptune's eyes lit up as she looked her sister over. "Ooooh! You just had to be gone for so long too!" She pouted at the maid. "Just for that..." She trailed off and Nepgear flinched slightly. "I know!" Neptune snapped her fingers and seemingly teleported over to Nepgear, a look of delight on the CPU's face matched a look of growing dread on Nepgear's face. "Lift your skirt up!"

Nepgear blushed heavily, but did as she was told, grabbing her skirt and lifting it up to reveal her panties. "I'm wearing the sexy panties you got me."

"Hmm..." Neptune looked at the panties Nepgear was wearing. "They are frilly and lacy, but they aren't super tiny."

"But sis," Nepgear protested while holding her skirt up. "I can't fit those on. They tear when I try to get them over my hips."

"Really?" Neptune asked and reached forward, grabbing the top of Nepgear's panties and pulled up, driving them into her crotch really tightly and getting a cry of discomfort from Nepgear. "Does it hurt?"

"N...No!" Nepgear shook her head. "It was just so sudden that I wasn't prepared for it."

"You should always be prepared for anything." Neptune shook her head and stood up. "You can lower your skirt now." Nepgear sighed and let go before yelping as Neptune slapped her hands. "I said lower it! Not let go!" Neptune frowned at her. "Just for that..." Her frown turned into a smile that had Nepgear paling. "Well, I think my doggy needs to go for a walk."

Nepgear whimpered as Neptune walked over to her dresser and pulled out a collar and leash. "Do I... Do I need to?"

"Be thankful that I'm letting you go out like this." Neptune told her and walked back before telling Nepgear to kneel, which the girl did. "I could put you in that doggy outfit, make you go around on all fours with your butt in the air."

"I'll be good." Nepgear whimpered, knowing that if she wasn't careful that she would be forced to walk on all fours while naked and Neptune would parade her around Planeptune.

...Or she'd just take a bunch of pictures while teasing her about what Neptune could do to her.

As Neptune put the collar around her neck, Nepgear thought back to her first conversation with her elder sister.

_"One day you're supposed to become a Void and then you'll fight and kill me. But I don't want you to become a Void. I don't want that for you."_

No matter how bad things got, Nepgear knew that her sister cared about her if she didn't want her to become a Void.

"Come on!" Neptune smiled after fastening a leash to the collar. "Let's go for a walk! And don't forget, you're a dog, not a person right now, so you can't speak."

"Woof?" Nepgear pointed to how she was standing upright and Neptune nodded.

"How many dogs can walk on their hind legs like that? Such a good girl!" She cooed and walked off with Nepgear following after her.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"Ga-THUNK!" Neptune cheered as she opened the secret panel in the wall and got out.

"Why did you do that?" Chrome asked as she slid out of the wall.

"Abnes is in the story and there was no "Ga-Thunk" sound yet!" Neptune protested. "Besides, I've been too mopey, I wanted to have some fun."

"And what if someone had been here to hear you?" Chrome asked, though she had an amused look on her face. "Well, whatever," she looked around the area and her face gave way to confusion as she saw that it was a large room with a large open window on one end and a door to the side and nothing else in the room, except for a small bird cage in the center of the room.

"HISTY!" Neptune suddenly yelled and ran to the bird cage, only stopping when the cage started to glow blue and fire started to burst from the metal. "NO!"

"And this is where I show how useful I am." Chrome said as she snapped her fingers forward, her razor wires wrapping around the cage and cutting through it. She quickly sent more wires into the cage and wrapped around something inside and yanked it out. "What?" She smirked at Neptune's shocked look. "You thought I could only use those things to cut people apart?"

"Yes." Neptune said flatly before turning her attention to the being that was wrapped in the wires. "H...Histy?"

"Yes." The wires disengaged to reveal a familiar and kind face, though one that looked very worn out. "I am Histoire."

Neptune stared at Histoire, her eyes watering. "...Histy... What... What happened to you?" As much as Compa and IF had been in bad shapes when she first met them, same with Filyn, they didn't compare to what Histoire looked like.

The fairy's wings were in tatters, her eyes were closed as though they were removed from her sockets, her right hand was missing all but its thumb and ring finger while her left foot was missing completely. Her clothes, which Neptune was so used to seeing pristine, were in tatters and parts of Histoire's ears were missing.

Histoire smiled at Neptune. "It's been so long since someone spoke to me with such kindness. It would have to be a CPU with a Heart, wouldn't it?"

Before Chrome could say anything, Neptune walked to Histoire and gently pulled her off of her book, hugging the tome while crying softly. "Who... Who did this to you, Histy?" Not even Iris Heart, at her worst, ever did something like that to Histoire. Even Arfoire and Kurome had never tried to hurt Histoire like how this Histoire was hurt.

Smiling, Histoire returned the hug. "Do not worry about this. I am glad that you are alive."

It was several minutes later when Neptune let go of the hug and put Histoire back onto the tome that Chrome spoke up. "Neptune told me that you contacted her awhile ago. Back in Lowee you asked her to save the CPU Candidates from their fate of becoming Voids." Histoire nodded at her. "Why? I agree that it was needed, especially after everything we've seen and experienced, but why her?"

A truly distressed look came over Histoire's face. "...It was to correct a mistake I made."

"What mistake?" Chrome asked, though she had an idea what Histoire was talking about.

"Oh come on, Histy..." A new voice spoke up and Neptune's eyes widened while she paled while Histoire's face screwed into pure rage. "You can't act like what you did was a mistake in front of Nepsy and Chromsy."

"Kurome?" Neptune trembled.

"What are you doing here?!" Histoire hissed at Kurome, though she was only looking in Kurome's general direction.

Kurome just smiled at them.

To be continued...

* * *

...Wait, what?

Also, poor Histy.


	82. Origins

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 73

"That's so rude, Histy." Kurome told the fairy while shaking her head. "I haven't seen you in decades and that's the first thing you say to me?"

"Everything's your fault!" Histoire hissed at Kurome. "What makes you think...?"

"Woah! Woah! Woah!" Neptune yelled, interrupting their argument and holding one hand flat with her palm down while jabbing her fingers into her palm. "Timeout! TIIIIIIIMEOUT!" Neptune sighed and lowered her hands. "First of all, you can see her, Histy?"

"If you're talking about a blue-haired girl that's partially transparent and has an incredibly arrogant look on her face, then I can see her too." Chrome said, causing Neptune to gawk at her.

"Why are you so surprised, Nepsy?" Kurome told her while smirking. "I was once Planeptune's CPU." Neptune opened her mouth and Kurome continued to speak before Neptune could say anything. "At least before I sealed myself up and you and your sister found my console and freed me."

Neptune's eyes widened and her face went pale as she took a step back. "You... You're the Kurome from MY world?!"

Kurome chuckled softly. "Come on, Nepsy, you should have figured that out the instant that we met in Lastation. Then again, you were always pretty slow, huh?" She ignored the hurt look on Neptune's face as she continued. "Yes, I am Hyperdimension's Uzume Tennouboushi. Or rather, the spirit of a tiny sliver of her."

"A sliver?" Chrome asked.

"And yet you still caused everything to go to hell!" Histoire yelled at Kurome, who merely chuckled at her.

"Even you don't know the full story, Histy. So I think it's time to explain."

"You were my predecessor," Neptune interrupted, "you lost control of your powers and sealed yourself to save Planeptune, but when sealed away, you grew resentful and created the Zero and Heart dimensions while being corrupted by Negative Energy." Kurome gave her a startled look while Neptune looked back at her smugly. "See? I can pay attention too!"

"I guess so." Kurome chuckled. "But that's too far back, Nepsy. I was thinking during the final battle when I was Dark Orange."

"...Oh."

"What is she talking about?" Chrome asked, confusion in her voice and on her face.

"Let me explain, Nepsy." Kurome told her and Neptune nodded. "You see, after I was defeated, I found myself floating into the Ether." Kurome said as she thought about how her body had been there dying. "However," her eyes glinted in determination, "I refused to die. I took all the hate of Gamindustri and used it to escape death." She smirked at the thought of it. "It was quite useful. But it caused a problem." Her face became more serious. "I found myself splitting again. Part of me returned to the Heart Dimension while I sank into the Ether."

"Part of you?" Chrome asked, confused.

"Nothing but rage, vengeance and hatred was in that part of me." Kurome shook her head. "For simplicity sake, Nepsy, just think of the "me" that you currently see as the "me" that was manipulating everyone and the "me" that you saw after my defeat as the angry "me"." Neptune nodded, that was easy enough.

"I take it after you sank into the Ether that you somehow ended up here?" Chrome asked, getting a nod from Kurome. "I see... But how..?"

Kurome chuckled softly. "Blame Crosy."

"Darksy?" Neptune asked, confused. "What did she do?"

"I read her book while I was brainwashing you." Kurome told Neptune. "And I found out about this dimension. So I guess as I sank into the Ether, I wanted to come visit this world. When I ended up in this world I ended up possessing a body..."

Neptune's eyes widened as a thought came to her mind. "...You possessed this world's Uzume?!"

"Bingo, Nepsy." Kurome chuckled, glad Neptune was sharp enough to pick up on things like that. "You aren't as stupid as Noiresy, Vertsy and Blansy think you are."

Neptune pouted at that. "I know that I'm a big dumb stupid head, but they don't need to think that." She jerked when she felt a hand on her shoulder. "Chrome?"

"You're not stupid, Neptune." Chrome smiled at her. "Naive, silly, foolish and easily distracted yes, but not stupid."

"I'll take over what happened next." Histoire said, her voice full of sadness and disappointment. "Uzume, the CPU of Planeptune, at the time had asked for my help. She was determined to make the other nations open up and become closer to each other and felt the best way to do so was to rid the world of some of the more... Troublesome monsters."

"Tentacle monsters?" Neptune asked.

"Tentacle monsters." Histoire and Kurome both replied in unison.

"Figures." Chrome muttered, wishing that had happened.

"Uzume certainly had the power to do that." Histoire continued, "but only in Planeptune, not across Gamworld. Hence why she called for me to assist her."

"Assist?" Chrome asked in confusion. "I thought you were supposed to record history of Gamworld and provide information when it was needed."

Histoire nodded at Chrome. "Indeed, that is one of my functions. One of my other functions is to assist the CPUs when it was needed. For Uzume, the thought of horrible monsters running around unchecked was a nightmare. I agreed to lend her my power..." Histoire sighed as she trailed off. "It happened like this..."

*Flash*

Looking at the CPU known as Orange Heart, Histoire smiled at her while Orange Heart held Histoire's book in her hands. "Are you ready?"

"Uzume can't wait to end those icky monsters!" The orange-haired CPU smiled and had a look of determination on her face.

"Then let us begin." Histoire said as she started to glow brightly.

"Uzume can... Uzume can feel everything!" Orange Heart stared in awe as her body glowed. "Now Uzume c..a..n.." Orange gasped as dark energy started to engulf her body. "What's going on? What is this!?"

"Oh dear," Histoire stared in shock. "This shouldn't happen, Uzume, please, let's..."

Whatever Histoire was going to say next was cut off as the dark energy emanating from Orange Heart suddenly erupted into a dark tornado that engulfed the two of them completely, causing Histoire to screw her eyes shut.

When the energy vortex died off, Histoire opened her eyes and gasped as she saw Orange Heart, only her hair was bright blue and her eyes were a darker shade of blue, but her pupils... The power symbol in them was upside down and black.

"Uzume sees..." Her voice wasn't as high pitched, though it sounded very similar, but now it came with a sinister undertone.

"Who?" Histoire asked as Orange Heart looked at her and smiled. "Orange... Heart?"

"Yep! Uzume is Orange Heart..." She gripped the tome and looked at her free hand, which was glowing with power. "All this negative power..." She looked at Histoire and smirked. "Uzume wants Histy to help her."

"Well, I was going to help you, but..." Histoire was cut off as she started to glow with power again. "What are you doing?"

"Uzume will flood this world with negative energy." The CPU said as Histoire watched while Orange Heart's body changed even more. Her processor turned dark in color, became more skimpy in what it covered and right in the center of her chest, a dark hole erupted outwards. Orange Heart leaned her head back and smiled. "Yes..."

"NO!" Histoire screamed as she felt that negative energy flood her. "STOP! PLEASE!" Her eyes teared up as she couldn't stop what was happening but could feel that her power was being used to twist, warp and pervert reality.

Orange Heart, who would become to be known as Orange Void, held up her hand towards the Sharicite and she watched with satisfaction as her negative energy flooded the crystal, causing it to stop glowing before falling to the ground and shattering. As the air got cold and bitter, red and black energy condensed into a new crystal that was upside down and pulsated with red and black energy. "Uzume thinks that it would be super duper to give this to the rest of the world."

Histoire could only stare in horror as her powers were used to send that negative energy across Gamworld. "NO!" She could see the Sharicite Crystal in Lastation as it shattered and turned into a new crystal. Her eyes widened as she watched, trembling as a new, evil CPU, came forth and hunted down Lastation's CPU and CPU Candidate, killing them both. "STOP!" She saw Eden's crystal shatter and how the new, evil CPU, brutalized the CPU Candidate of Eden. "PLEASE! NO MORE!" In Leanbox, another evil CPU came forth and killed her predecessor instantly. In Lowee the same thing happened.

"Did Histy like seeing that?" Orange Void asked, smiling sweetly. "Uzume thinks that Histy might want to try and undo her hard work, so..."

Histoire stared in horror as Orange Void grabbed at the pages of her book. "NO!"

"Uzume will make sure that Histy never undoes anything."

There was a tearing sound and screams from Histoire as the last thing she ever saw was Orange Void's evil grin.

*End Flash*

After hearing that, Neptune trembled and glared at Kurome. "You... You... HOW COULD YOU?!"

Kurome chuckled softly. "I probably would have done the same to our Histy had I won, Nepsy."

"SHE'S OUR MOTHER!" Neptune screamed at Kurome, who merely smirked at her.

"And I'm a being full of hate and malice." Kurome merely rolled her eyes. "So I don't care what you say, Nepsy."

Chrome put her hands on Neptune's shoulders to try and keep her from lashing out. "I understand where you're coming from Neptune. It's because of her that Iris Void took my nation from me and killed all of my people and even her little sister." She narrowed her eyes at Kurome. "To think it was Planeptune's CPU."

"She's NOT Planeptune's CPU!" Histoire protested, "she merely took over Uzume's body and forced her to do lots of bad stuff!"

"I just have one question then," Chrome looked at Kurome, "how is it that you're dead? If you have this much power..."

Kurome chuckled at her. "Would you believe it's because of my little sister, Uranus?" Chrome raised an eyebrow but nodded at her. "See, I had no clue about the dynamics of CPUs and CPU Candidates in this world, so when I had a little sister be born to me, I was... Actually kind of happy." Kurome sighed heavily. "Uranus never liked me though, even though I was quite kind to her. I actually treated her like how you treated Gearsy, Nepsy." She sighed heavily. "But then one day she transformed. I was going to announce it to Planeptune that their CPU Candidate had achieved transformation, but that's when..." Kurome looked a bit embarrassed by what she was admitting. "Well, that's when I ended up losing my head. Even if I have the power to affect reality, not much I can do in that situation." Kurome shrugged at them. "I can interact somewhat with reality, but for the most part, I'm just a spirit now."

"Why?" Neptune asked, tears in her eyes. "Why would you hurt Histy?! WHY?!"

"I only meant to stop her from undoing what I did, Nepsy." Kurome sighed and actually looked remorseful for her actions. "I never, never, intended to hurt her that much."

"You lie!" Histoire shot back, glaring as best she could despite having no eyes. "You didn't stop until I was like this."

"And didn't I apologize many times over the years?" Kurome asked rhetorically.

Chrome let out a soft sigh. "Neptune, Histoire, please, both of you, calm down." She squeezed Neptune's shoulder. "I understand how mad you are. Remember how I was when I saw Iris Void again?" Neptune nodded. "And you made me promise to not hurt Iris Heart if I ever met her, right?" Neptune nodded again. "So please, calm down, okay?" Neptune nodded again, this time sighing and Chrome gave Kurome a nasty look. "I have nothing but utter hatred for what you did to this world. The fact that you made our world go from a place of beauty to one of such..."

"You have tentacle monsters and other creatures running around." Kurome shot back. "Though I'm certain that the other nations were quite well off."

Histoire sighed softly. "Lowee was full of jungles and mountains, there were plenty of places to go for some beautiful sightseeing."

"Not anymore." Chrome told her. "The jungle encroached on everything and traveling on foot across the nation is nearly impossible now."

"I see..." Histoire shook her head. "Leanbox was a nation that focused on containing its monsters so that the people could live good lives."

"It's a giant maze now!" Neptune pointed out helpfully. "I got captured by a tentacle too." She looked at Chrome and smiled. "Thanks for saving me."

Chrome rolled her eyes. "Don't mention it."

"...And Green Void was using tentacles to make her nightmare form stronger and stronger." Neptune shuddered.

Histoire sighed heavily and hung her head. "Eden was a paradise. It was a garden with lots of lakes and..."

"It was turned into a swamp because of Iris Void." Chrome told her. "And now it's no more." Even though it had been over sixty years since she had been the CPU of Eden, the loss of her nation and people still hurt Chrome badly. Glaring at Kurome, she trembled in anger. "If not for you... I could have retired with Filyn being the next CPU of Eden. I probably would have went traveling to the other nations, just to see them."

"You're seeing them now." Kurome chuckled at the rage she was getting from Chrome. "I'm a spirit, you can't do anything."

"...Someone get me the phone. I'm gunna call the ghostbusters!" Neptune declared and looked around for a phone.

"They aren't even in this universe." Kurome pointed out. "Plus can you imagine how much they'd charge you just for gas to get here from where they live?"

Histoire had a distressed look on her face. "..Is Lastation still a vibrant land of life where technology is used to make everyone's lives better?"

"Well..." Neptune trailed off. "Does a bubble shield to stop pollution from getting to your city count?"

Histoire trembled and lowered her head. "I failed... I failed to protect Gamworld. My most important role and I failed." She started to cry anew and didn't resist as she felt two arms wrap around her and pull her into a hug.

Neptune patted Histoire's back. 'Don't worry, Histy. I'll fix this. I promise.'

To be continued...

* * *

And there you go. That's how things went to hell in Gamworld.


	83. RED

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

The next few chapters happen simultaneously, so just keep that in mind.

* * *

Chapter 74

Walking into the guild, Cave looked around before spotting someone she recognized and walked over to them. "I'm surprised you're here, MAGES."

Holding a large, open pitcher of some sort of drink, which Cave was pretty sure that it was so potent that it could probably kill anyone but MAGES., the blue-haired girl smiled at her. "Not surprised you'd find me here, Cave. The rugrats showed up a bit ago, got registered and went to the catacombs." MAGES. said, shrugging and wondering if they'd be okay. The catacombs had been built about twenty years ago by her father as a way to help people who wanted to get stronger and make a living while keeping the monsters in Planeptune corralled and in check.

"They did, huh?" Cave asked, "surprised that they didn't recognize you if I did."

"You really think that they'd see through my illusion magic if I didn't want them to?" MAGES. asked in amusement. "Besides, I'm curious about them."

Cave mentally sighed, knowing that whenever her friend found someone or something interesting that things turned out bad for someone. "Is this going to be a repeat of the chicken incident?"

"GAH!" MAGES. looked around in a panic. "Dammit, Cave, it's been three years since then and I swear those things are still plotting revenge!"

Cave smirked at MAGES. and sat down at the table. "Anyway," she got a more serious look on her face. "Now that you've met them, what are your plans for them?"

"The two magic users are the only ones I'm interested in." MAGES. said dismissively. "The little blonde girl and the one with the eye-patch... I'll send..."

"Please don't." Cave said in a desperate tone of voice as she knew what MAGES. was hinting at. "Please, I had to watch him do his thing earlier."

MAGES. grimaced at that. Even just the allusion to Trick was enough to send anyone who knew about him into fits of disgust. "Sorry. But you know how our CPU is, if she can get others to do the job, she lets them do it however they want."

Cave groaned softly, "I know, MAGES, I know."

"That's part of the reason I want you to join the Knights, Cave." MAGES. gave her friend a smile. "You could take the jobs that are assigned to us and keep the idiot duo from making things worse for everyone."

Cave raised an eyebrow. "For someone as random as you are, this is surprisingly thought out from you."

MAGES. smirked at Cave. "Also, you'd have to use the same showers as me and, BWAH?!" MAGES yelped as Cave smacked the back of her head. "THAT HURT!" MAGES. pouted while tearing up. "What was that for?"

"Even when I dated others, MAGES. I never did lewd things in public areas." Cave told her. "So if you think I'd let you, someone I'm not dating, fondle me in public, think again."

"You're lucky we're friends, Cave." MAGES. said with a hurt expression on her face.

"I know." Cave nodded.

(-)

Elsewhere...

Walking down some stairs, RED smiled as she looked around. She was a happy redhead. There were so many pretty wifey candidates in Planeptune and her wifey CPU didn't mind if she had a harem either!

"Hmm... Maybe I should see if I can find a couple of cute wifeys for tonight?" RED giggled as she pulled a yo yo out of her pocket and swung it around casually while she bounced, literally, down the stairs. As she looked around, most of the girls she saw, while cute, didn't quite reach the levels of attractiveness that she was looking for. "No one compares to my CPU Wifey after all." RED giggled as she wasn't trying to compare normal people to her wifey, since they were humans after all. Still, that didn't mean she couldn't find a couple that weren't cute enough for her to take an interest in.

The redhead fidgeted and had to take a deep breath to calm down. "Goodness, the thought of finding a couple of cuties for me tonight almost made me have to change my undies." She giggled to herself as she got to the bottom of the stairs. Looking around, she saw the streets were mostly empty, save for a few people and sighed. "Awww... Is everyone working?" She pouted and walked off in a random direction. "Too bad not everyone can be with my CPU Wifey like me."

An image of Neptune in an open office shirt and her panties appeared in RED's mind. _"RED,"_ she whispered and crawled forward. _"Would you want to share me with more people? Hmm?"_

RED shivered and drooled as she could practically feel her wifey's fingers and tongue touch her exposed skin. "N...No... I..."

"LOOK OUT!" RED's erotic daydream was interrupted as something hit her in the face and caused her to crash onto her back, hard.

"Oh jeez!" A female voice yelled while running over to her. "Sorry about that." The object was removed from her face and RED grimaced while slowly opening her eyes to see who had attacked her. "Lemme see..." The person said and RED noticed that the person had brown hair, skin that was of multiple colors, green eyes and was rather short, petite...

"So pretty..." RED looked at the girl more fully and found herself smiling brightly. "I've decided!" She stood up when the brunette helped her to her feet and squeezed the girl's hand. "I want you to be my wifey and join me tonight!"

"Uh..?" The girl had a confused and utterly confused look on her face. "...Wifey?"

RED nodded at the girl. "Yes!" She was practically squealing in delight as she squeezed the girl's hand and noted how warm it felt. "I'll take you to my place, we'll have a nice dinner," she leaned in, a lewd grin on her face while using her free, left hand to run her fingers over the girl's cheek as she lowered her voice softly, "and when we're done..." She put her fingers under the girl's chin, causing her to shiver, "I'll show you just what it means to be my wifey."

The girl was blushing so hard that RED was giggling in amusement. "But... But..."

"Ooooh!" RED's eyes lit up. "You're a kinky girl." She pulled the stammering, blushing girl into a hug. "I like that in my wifey." She blinked as she felt a tap on her shoulder. "Yes?" She asked and turned her head. "What do you want?" She asked the person who interrupted her seduction attempt.

The only response she got was a fist to the face that had her letting go of the girl and flying several feet away. "GAH!"

"No one gets to do that to my girlfriend but me! Got it?!" The person, a girl with short, green hair and red eyes, glared at RED.

Groaning in pain while rubbing her nose, RED sat up and looked at the green-haired girl. "Hmm... Normally not my type but..." She smiled and stood up. "I'm terribly sorry about that." She gave the girls and apologetic look and clapped her hands together. "Had I known you were together I wouldn't have come on like that to you."

"Well... No harm, I guess." The brown-haired girl said, looking uncomfortable. "I mean, I was really uncomfortable when you did that."

"And I'm sorry." RED smiled at the two. "Oh! I should introduce myself! My name is RED!"

"I'm IF..." The girl she had tried to seduce said, her face still red. "This is my girlfriend, Linda."

"Now that you know, you can just get out of here." Linda said, an angry expression on her face and in her voice.

"Well..." RED smiled nervously. "I know!" She clapped her hands together. "How about I take you two out to dinner and maybe we could do some fun stuff back at my place together." The look the two gave her was one of absolute shock. "See, I like cute wifeys, but if a cute wifey I like has a boyfriend or a husband it's a problem. And..." She looked Linda up and down, "you're not my type, but I'm willing to put that aside if I can have a night with a cute wifey like Iffy there!"

"No way!" Linda growled and turned around. "Come on, IF, let's leave this pervert."

"Yeah," IF sighed heavily, "I doubt she'd know much about the CPU anyway."

RED tilted her head. "Huh? You want to know about my Wifey CPU?" The two stopped when she said that and turned back to look at her and RED slowly smiled at them. "How about I tell you all about my wifey and you two have to spend the night with me doing all the fun stuff wifeys do together?"

IF's face was bright red. "I haven't even done that with my girlfriend yet!"

"So..." RED tilted her head. "Then how are you her girlfriend if you haven't gone that far?" Both Linda and IF sputtered and RED sighed heavily. "It's not fair," she pouted, "I find a really cute wifey and I just want a one-night stand with her, I'll even make it a three-some with a girl I don't find really attractive and I'll tell you anything you want to know about my wifey!" She crossed her arms under her E-cup breasts and huffed. "Is that so wrong?"

"I'm not exactly enthused by the idea of whoring ourselves out for information." Linda groused and looked at IF, who had a pensive look on her face. "...What are you thinking?"

IF looked at Linda and blushed. "I... I at least want to see if she knows anything beyond basic information. No one else was willing to talk to us." Linda stared at her. "I'm not agreeing to anything, plus..." She looked away, blushing hard, "I'm only agreeing to talk with her because you're here, okay?"

Linda stared, gawking for almost two minutes and IF grew more and more uncomfortable with each passing moment. "What... The..."

"It's only talking!" IF rounded on Linda, a scared look on her face, "nothing more! I promise! And if you want to leave after that, we can, okay?!"

Linda wasn't sure what she was thinking, she wasn't sure what IF was thinking. But she woodenly nodded and went along with it.

"Great!" RED smiled at them, clapping her hands together. "I'll show you two to a great place and we can talk, okay?" They nodded, reluctantly, and followed after her.

RED was certain that by the end of the night that these two would not only have the information they wanted, but also a night they wouldn't ever forget.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Crouching on the top of a roof, Steamax watched, with growing disdain, how Nepgear was led around on a leash while the person leading her around treated her like a dog. "I think I am beginning to see why the others have a problem with Voids." He said softly as he assumed that the person leading Nepgear around was the Void of Planeptune. "She looks so much like Lady Neptune that it's unreal." He whispered in awe.

As much as he wanted to get Nepgear out of there, since he knew that saving CPU Candidates was important, he also knew that if this Neptune was like the Neptune he knew or how Noire had been, then her HDD form would be quite... Powerful, to put it mildly.

And Steamax knew that one-on-one, he might win, there was no guarantee of that.

Without any available immediate backup, he knew it was best to sit still and not act.

He was sorely tempted to attack the Void version of Neptune when she made Nepgear crouch on her legs and hold her hands up like dog paws while sticking her tongue out and begging for a cookie. "What kind of disgusting person would do that to their own sister?" It was one thing to hear about it from Rom, Ram and Peashy, but to see it in person was far worse for him.

"At least she gave her the cookie." Steamax muttered in total disgust as he stood up and disappeared from sight.

(-)

Uni turned when she heard a soft thump behind her. "Well?" She asked, worried that something bad had happened.

"I understand why Lady Neptune and Lady Chrome thought that Lady Noire was bad when they first arrived in Lastation." Steamax answered her.

Uni gave him a look of confusion that turned into disgust as he explained what he saw. "That... that... ARRGH!" Uni screamed in anger and frustration.

"Lady Uni, what do you suggest we do?" Steamax asked her. "Neither of us know her very well and asking her to trust us right off the bat might be asking too much."

"You think I don't know that?" Uni asked as she tried to calm down and think clearly. "We need to observe more. If a chance comes up, we should take it, I think."

"A chance for what, Lady Uni?"

Uni smirked at him. "To steal Planeptune's CPU Candidate away from her sister."

To be continued...

* * *

Well, this should be interesting. Let's see if they get the chance to do so.


	84. Cawls

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Surprise update!

Before this chapter begins, I want to say, wow, I never would have thought, when I started this story, that it would get to 1000 reviews before it ended. Thank you all *SO* much for your continued support and I hope you stay with me to the end.

1000 reviews, wow, it just blows my mind.

* * *

Chapter 75

"So what are we looking for again?" Filyn asked as she, Rom, Ram and Peashy walked into the catacomb. The guild agent had assured them that the first two levels had only weak enemies and there was nothing to worry about, so long as you weren't stupid, that changed on the third floor.

"Apparently the third floor got taken over by enemies that hang out on the eighth floor and the guild wants the boss monster to be taken out." Rom said as she looked at the request. "...Wait, what? Apparently they are very dangerous enemies that give even seasoned adventurers troubles."

"...And we chose that?!" Ram yelled, trembling and looking like she wanted to cry.

"...I wanted to choose the strongest quest to get strong enough quick enough." Rom said weakly.

"If Pea is turned into a ghost, she will haunt you forever!" Peashy protested and casually punched a dogoo that jumped at her, sending it flying several meters away, where it went splat against a wall. She had a look of childish anger on her face as she looked at Rom, who nodded weakly.

"I think we'd all be ghosts in that case, Peashy." Rom said, gulping at the looks of annoyance that the others were giving her. "I'm sorry, we can..."

"Look..." Filyn said and rubbed her nose. "We're CPU Candidates, right?" She asked rhetorically, getting nods from all of them. "You three are going to be CPUs one day. Isn't doing something that adventurers have trouble with something that a CPU should do?"

None of them asked about Filyn.

It was pretty hard to be a CPU without a nation after all.

"You're right." Rom nodded. "Besides, we took on a giant monster and these monsters can't be stronger than that thing was, right?"

"Yeah!" Everyone cheered at once and walked into the catacombs.

As they walked through the first level, they couldn't help but notice how it was similar to Leanbox's dungeon-maze was.

(-)

Several hours later...

"Pea's bored." Peashy muttered, an annoyed look on her face. "Are we on the third floor yet?"

"We just found the door to the third floor." Filyn pointed out. "Hey, Rom, what's supposed to be on this floor? I hope it's stronger than dogoos and tulips."

"I didn't make this dungeon." Rom muttered as she looked at the book about the dungeon. "Anyway, this floor's supposed to have pipe-like enemies, Fenrirs, Shampururus and minor Dragons."

"Best be careful then." Filyn said as the others looked at her. "Fenrirs are nasty if they catch you by surprise and Dragons are always mean and tough."

The other three nodded as they looked at the large stone doors with a Roman number three in the center before they pushed it open and walked into the new area.

Seeing a bunch of open grass and ground wasn't what any of them had been expecting. Nor were the animals on the floor.

"MOOOO!" The animals cried out as they ate the grass.

"Um..." Filyn, Ram and Peashy all looked at Rom, who looked at her book and flipped ahead.

"It says that they're Cawl monsters." Rom pointed out while reading from the book. "They tend to hang out on the eighth floor and are really docile... Unless they think you're going to hurt them, then..." She looked around. "Um... Where..? GAH!" Her eyes went white and blank as she saw Peashy and Ram running to the nearest Cawl while Filyn followed after. "WAIT!"

"Cawl! Cawl!" Peashy yelled happily while running towards the monster with her arms up. Most of them ignored her and continued to eat. A few looked at Peashy as she ran towards them, giggling. "AAAAH!" She screamed as she tripped over a rock and slammed into a small Cawl, causing it to cry out in pain.

"MMMMOOOOOOO!" The tone of the Cawls got deeper and the air itself was filled with a level of menace that hadn't been there before.

"Um..." Ram trembled as she saw the Cawl's eyes all turn red. "RUN!" She turned and ran, followed by Filyn and Peashy as the Cawls all let out a bellow and ran after them. "ROOOOOM! HEEEEELLLLLP!"

"Stop yelling!" Rom yelled as she ran next to Ram. "You brought them my way!" They let out a shriek of fright as a gout of flame came their way. Turning their heads, all four girls paled as all of the Cawls had flames coming out of their mouths while they stampeded towards them.

"Oh, so that's why they're on the eighth floor then." Filyn muttered. "RUN FASTER!"

"AAAAAAHHH!" They all screamed and turned a corner to avoid another burst of flame. Which didn't do much as the Cawls turned the corner and continued to run after them.

(-)

Meanwhile...

The food was pretty good, Linda could admit as she and IF ate at a diner with this RED girl, who seemed more entertained than anything else by how uncomfortable they all were. Still, Linda was annoyed as hell by this whole situation. The fact that this RED girl wanted to have a threesome, and it was taking all of Linda's willpower not to turn into a blushing mess at the thought of doing something as depraved as THAT with her girlfriend, and had information about the CPU, but would only give out detailed information in exchange for a threesome really bothered her.

RED suddenly gave a soft clap and three glasses with some weird bubbly liquid were brought over. Linda thought it was alcoholic, but it was really sweet and there was no after-taste of alcohol. "Let's enjoy more of this delicious fruity drink." RED smiled as it was placed on the table. "Come on! Drink! Drink!"

IF and Linda looked at each other and sighed before taking a glass and taking a long drink out of it. It was pretty good at least.

"Can you finally answer our questions?" IF asked and RED smiled, nodding. "It's about the CPU. Her name's Nep...Tune, right?" RED nodded at her. "And her sister is Nepgear?" RED nodded again. "Okay, that was pretty easy since we knew that already."

"Then why ask?" RED asked, giggling at her. "That's fine, I don't mind answering some questions for such a cute wifey like you." She ignored Linda's growl and took a swig of her drink. "Mmm! So good!" She gushed happily. After another two minutes RED smiled at them. "So, do you want to know how much the CPU loves caramel pudding?"

"Uh, no..." IF gave RED an annoyed look. "I'm more interested in what kind of person she is."

"Hmm..." RED tilted her head and thought about it. "She's really cute and funny and totally random."

"Random... How?" Linda asked, hoping to get some information about the CPU of Planeptune out of the other girl.

"Well," RED smiled at her, "she could complain about being hungry for something and decide to throw someone's laundry in the street because of it." They both stared at her. "She still gets food, but she'll do stuff like that."

"That sounds... Weird." Linda slowly said.

RED nodded at her. "Yeah. For most people, they see a problem and think how to get from where they are to a solution. My CPU wifey sees a problem, she wonders why there needs to be six types of cheese in the macaroni, why don't penguins fly, try to find forty-two of something for some reason and then figure out why the problem exists in the first place."

"And fix it?" IF asked.

RED shrugged. "Either that or make it worse for someone else." She giggled suddenly. "Actually, that's how I met my wifey. She was bored and went for a walk. She ended up destroying my apartment." RED sighed happily. "I found her so cute and sexy that I moved into the Basilicom."

"...Wait, you live there?" Linda asked and RED nodded. "...Why?"

"Because of the sex." RED said, a completely serious look on her face and both Linda and IF face-faulted onto the table, causing the big-breasted girl to giggle. "Anyway, let's just enjoy the food before going back to my private place."

"Private place?" Linda asked. "Not at the Basilicom?"

"Of course not, silly." RED smiled at her. "My wifey's busy today and I sometimes want to get away from those hussies when they're with her."

"...You're married to the CPU and she's with others?" Linda pieced together and RED blushed hard.

"Well..." RED poked her fingers together. "It's not official or anything."

Both Linda and IF sighed and took another drink before going to eat. Both of them could admit that the food was really good at least.

RED just smiled as she looked at the two of them. It was taking everything she had to not squirm in her seat. It was even harder as they looked at each other and blushed while looking away like they were trying to deny what they were feeling.

(-)

An hour later...

Linda came out of the shower, dressed in only a white robe, with her hair still slightly damp and had to admit that RED's personal living place was really nice. "Multiple bathrooms and showers?" She shook her head in amazement. Sure, the outpost had every building with its own bathroom and shower, but they were nowhere near as nice as this place was. Turning the corner to go to RED's room, she stopped and stared as she saw IF in a similar state of dress turning another corner. The two wordlessly walked up to RED's door and blushed hard as they looked at each other.

Neither one could say anything as they got to RED's door and they pushed it open, only to pause as they saw a string with a letter attached to it hanging from the ceiling on the other side.

Linda took the letter and, after getting it out of the string, began to read it.

_"Dearest wifeys,  
__Sorry, but I got a call from a friend.  
__I need to go take care of some personal business.  
__So no threesome this time.  
__But if you two want to have some fun, go ahead.  
__Sincerely,  
__RED."_

IF and Linda both looked at the letter, then they looked at the large bed on the other side of the room and then at each other.

"Um..." IF began. "I'm sorry." She said sheepishly. "I wasn't trying to do anything kinky or anything, I just wanted some information. I just..." She looked away, blushing. "I just wanted to help Chrome and Nep out."

"I..." Linda pursed her lips as she looked at IF. "...I can understand..." She gulped as she couldn't stop the next words out of her mouth even if she wanted to. "I'm so turned on, IF." IF turned and gawked at her. "I... I'm not happy about the idea of maybe having our first time being a three-some, but..." She looked at the bed, then at IF and smiled. "...Want to have sex?"

IF didn't answer verbally.

She didn't need to as she undid her robe to reveal she was naked underneath it. Grabbing Linda, she pulled the greenette to the bed with a kiss of passion and longing.

The two didn't stay very quiet after that.

(-)

Not far away...

RED smiled as she could feel the atmosphere around her place change. "Ah, good. I was wondering if those drinks would finally take effect or not. Man, those two are really cute together though."

"I'm surprised that you'd let them use your place for that." Another voice spoke up and RED smiled at the person.

"Surprised?" RED giggled. "You shouldn't be, Cave."

"I suppose not." Cave shook her head. "So why did you call me anyway?"

RED gave her a lewd grin. "Can I stay at your place and do..."

"We're not dating, so no, I won't have sex with you." Cave shot her down. "You can sleep on my couch if you need to. Or use your apartment at the Basilicom."

RED pouted at that. "Oh pooh!" She understood though, Cave was like that to everyone. "You can't blame a girl for trying though."

"Yes I can." Cave told her. "Also, don't think I don't know about the inhibition lowering drugs you slipped into their drinks." RED winced at the look Cave gave her. "The only reason I'm not busting your ass for doing that is because the CPU would be mad at me." She turned and walked off. "So if you want to come to my place, you're on the couch."

RED sighed and followed after Cave, enjoying the way her hips swayed. "You need to get laid then."

"Find me a boyfriend or a girlfriend and I'll take you up on that offer." Cave shot back to her. "I doubt that you could though."

RED pouted, but didn't push it anymore. After all, Cave could kick her butt all across Planeptune with ease and RED didn't feel like dealing with the resulting bruises from it.

"...Can you at least walk around your place naked?" RED asked and Cave stopped to look at her.

"...Only if you promise to not try to touch me and resist the urge to masturbate until I'm in my room and you have to keep your voice down."

"DEAL!" RED smiled victoriously as Cave nodded. It might have been a small victory, but it was better than nothing.

To be continued...

* * *

Yes, Cawls are Cows. Cows that breathe fire. Don't laugh, cows are VERY scary when they view someone or something is a threat to the herd. That IS 1500-2400 pounds per animal charging you. And it's mostly muscle too. Very scary when they decide to get rid of a problem.


	85. Shrubbery

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Can't you figure out what the title is referencing yourselves?

* * *

Chapter 76

Panting as the last of the Cawls stopped chasing them, the four girls slid to their butts while trying to gasp for air. "Ho...How were they scarier than a giant monster?" Ram asked as she gasped for air.

"Because there were a lot of them and they breathed fire?" Rom suggested.

"Plus they were sitting there calmly until Peashy hurt the small one." Filyn pointed out and looked around. "I don't see how running away from them will make us stronger."

Rom frowned at her, knowing she was right, but she couldn't let that comment go. "And getting killed won't make us stronger!"

Peashy looked up and tilted her head. "Is that a Dragon?" She pointed up, knowing what they generally looked like, but not what they specifically looked like.

The other three turned to look up at what Peashy was pointing at and saw a Dragon-like creature flying through the air.

"No, that's a Wyvern." Filyn pointed out. "They look like Dragons, but aren't as big. Plus, you can see how its wings are built into its arms," she pointed at the wings, "so they aren't full Dragons."

"Will it grow into a full Dragon?" Rom asked, curious.

"I dunno, never saw a Wyvern turn into a Dragon." Filyn shrugged. "But we should be careful. Wyverns can be bad too."

The Wyvern flew past them and towards a large tree that was partially uprooted with mounds of dirt all around it.

"By the way, what's the boss monster we're supposed to take out?" Filyn asked and Rom looked into the book.

"Hmm... Apparently it looks like a Shampururu but is really, really dangerous."

"You mean like that?" Peashy asked as she was on top of a nearby tree and pointing at the thing that was under the tree. "Ooooh! The not-Dragon is going to eat it!"

"Well, if that's the case, things will be a lot easier for us." Filyn muttered as she, Rom and Ram all got closer to take a better look. "I mean, how bad could it be?"

The next thing that happened had all four CPU Candidates staring in shock as the creature, which was the size of a small cat, jumped up at the throat of the Wyvern, biting and attacking it so viciously that they watched in muted horror as the Wyvern's head came flying off in a spray of blood and the creature crashed into the pit where the boss creature let out a scream and they listened to disturbing sounds of flesh and bone being torn apart.

The girls all had blank, white eyes with black circles around their eyes as they stood still, unable to comprehend what they just saw.

Peashy had it the worst as she was able to see everything that happened in great detail from her position on the tree. "Pea doesn't like that thing!"

"Yeah, neither do I." Rom shuddered as she tried to think. "We can't let that thing go."

"...I'm not going to have my head torn off like that." Filyn pointed out and tapped her chin. "Maybe we can just freeze it in that hole and then blow it up?"

"AHHH!" Peashy yelled as the creature turned to look at her and suddenly charged at her. "It's coming!"

Ram paled as the creature got over the mound, dripping with blood, and rushed at them. "G...GET AWAY!" She screamed as she let loose a gout of flame that the creature nimbly jumped away from. "D...Darn it! S...Stay back!" She yelled, trembling in fear. A flying spear forced the creature to jump away from Ram and focus on the person who attacked it.

_"This one has the opposite problem. You're too meek to bring out your full power..."_ MAGES.'s words echoed in Ram's head while Peashy and Rom kept the creature at a distance.

"Am I..?" Ram asked, her eyes tearing up as she remembered how she didn't even try to fight back when captured in Lastation and all because of how she was split away from her big sis and Rom. "I... I..."

_"You need to have confidence in yourself."_

"But I'm weak," Ram trembled as she took a step back and fell on her butt. "I can't..." Memories of White Void and how she treated Ram entered her mind. "I'm so weak..." Ram looked down, her eyes tearing up. "Big sis... Help... I..."

_"Good job."_ Purple Heart's voice echoed in her head and Ram blinked. _"You really acted like a proper CPU out there."_

"B...Big sis?" Ram asked softly as she saw Purple Heart's gentle and kind smile in her mind. "I..."

Ram jerked side to side as she stood up, tears falling down her face. "No... I... I might be scared, but..." She looked up, a look of fierce determination on her face. "I won't let big sis worry about me! I... I won't be a crybaby anymore!" She screamed as fire and wind kicked up around her, causing Filyn, Rom and Peashy, the latter of whom had gotten out of the tree and was trying to hit the rabbit-like creature with rocks. A magic stick formed in her hands as she pointed it at the creature, her eyes glowing red. "Flame... TWISTER!"

Filyn, Rom and Peashy all dodged out of the way as the air around the creature suddenly twisted and flames spiraled around the creature. Before anyone could ask if that was it, more flaming twisters erupted out of nowhere, each one a different color and pierced the flaming vortex from various angles. Contrary to what they were expecting, the multi-colored flaming tornadoes cut through the main tornado.

A few moments later, the tornadoes died out and all that was left was a charred skeleton of a rabbit in the middle of a circular fire burn.

"WOW!" Peashy's eyes sparkled as she got up and ran over to Ram. "How did you do that?!"

"I..." Ram blushed softly. "I'm just tired of being a crybaby, that's all." She blushed more as Rom, Filyn and Peashy all gave her confused looks. "It... That magic girl. She told me that I was too shy and meek..." She looked down and dug her toe into the ground. "I want to be stronger."

Rom was silent while Peashy and Filyn gave Ram praise over it. _"Powering your magic with your anger? Such a foolish idea. I've seen what happens when people are consumed by their anger... It's not fun."_ MAGES.'s warning echoed in her head and Rom found herself frowning softly.

'Am I going to become a bad CPU?' Rom asked herself.

_"Rom, you must never hold in such negative emotions."_ Purple Heart's words entered her mind and Rom thought back to some conversations that she had with Neptune. _"I have plenty of friends back home who held in those emotions and let them fester."_

Rom hadn't asked, as Neptune had only alluded to CPUs who weren't really bad, but had lost everything because they held their emotions back too much. 'Am I bothered by something then?' She asked herself. '...Why am I so angry?'

Rom didn't know why and in many ways, that was even worse, as it only made her angrier with herself.

"Hey! Hey! HEEEEEY!" Peashy yelled while shaking Rom to get her attention. Rom looked at her and Peashy pouted. "You got quiet. We're going to go back now."

"Ah!" Rom's eyes widened as she saw Ram and Filyn not too far off looking at her in concern. "Sure!" She briskly walked toward her twin and Filyn while Peashy followed after her. "Sorry about that. I was just thinking."

"Oh, so that's why it's smokey around here." Filyn giggled while the other three gave her a confused look.

"Pea thought that was because of the fire." Peashy pointed to the smoldering remains of the bunny creature.

"That's not..." Filyn just groaned at the looks the others gave her. "Nevermind. Let's just go back."

The four giggled and made their way to the entrance to the third floor. As they got close to the door, Rom paused and looked around in confusion. "...Is someone there?"

"What's wrong?" Filyn asked as she, Ram and Peashy all stopped to look around as well.

"..I don't know." Rom admitted. "I just thought I felt someone watching me."

"Maybe it's nothing?" Filyn suggested.

"...Maybe." Rom nodded as they left the area.

Unseen to them, a spider-like creature scuttled along, its eyes glowing softly.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"Well," MAGES. smiled as her familiar relayed what happened down in the catacombs. "They managed to kill that bastard, huh?" That creature had been such a pain in the ass that she was tempted to send Judge down to the eighth floor to see if he could kill it.

"They might be fun to face later." She smiled at the thought of playing with them again.

"Still..." MAGES. whispered to herself softly. "CPU Candidates? That explains a lot." As much as she wanted to play with them, she knew that the CPU would need to know about them. She was about to get up and tell the CPU of Planeptune about them when she remembered that she was with Nepgear. "Oh right, she hates her sister time interrupted."

Shrugging, she decided to tell Neptune later.

Hopefully the CPU wouldn't be upset about holding this information back.

To be continued...

* * *

Monty Python is awesome. RIP Terry Jones

I should note that I wrote this before Terry Jones died.


	86. Walking Plans

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 77

"So, Histy..." Kurome smiled at the book fairy. "Why don't you finally tell Nepsy the real reason you asked her to kill the Voids of Gamworld?"

Histoire's face became sullen and she looked down. "...When I sensed a CPU Heart in Gamworld, I realized that there was a chance to fix everything..." She trembled and grabbed at her tattered dress as best she could, considering her mangled hand. "I..." She looked up, a look of remorse on her face. "I wanted you to kill the Void CPUs, because the only way to save this world, the only way to stop the Voids... It couldn't be done by the CPUs of this world. It would just continue in a cycle of hatred, pain and suffering."

"So asking a Heart that could transform could break the cycle, huh?" Chrome asked, getting a nod from Histoire. "It makes sense. We're not created from people's negative feelings."

"But without Sharicite, the few Heart CPUs that survived what happened sixty years ago couldn't transform." Histoire sighed softly. "In fact, I believe you're the final Heart CPU of this world."

Chrome sighed heavily, nodding. "I figured as much. I came to terms with it a long time ago." A small smile came to her face. "I have my sister, I know that my people never stopped believing in me. Even if Eden's gone now, I've avenged all of them."

"I see." Histoire said, a look of sadness on her face. "I... I really am sorry that I couldn't stop what happened."

"I admit, I should be more upset," Chrome looked at Kurome, who was merely smirking at her, "but the one who was responsible for what happened is dead. Even if she's a spirit."

Kurome merely shrugged. "Well, Nepsy? What will you do now?" Neptune looked at her in confusion. "The CPU of Planeptune..." She pointed at Neptune. "Is you. Or rather, the you of this world."

Neptune sighed and looked down. "...I knew it, I hoped that it wasn't that way, but... Deep down, I knew." She looked at Histoire and bit her lip softly. "...Histy..."

"Whatever your decision, I'll go along with it." Histoire said softly. "I suspect that I'm not the only one who feels this way."

"You aren't." Chrome spoke up. "I already pledged myself to you, Neptune. Whatever you want, I'll go along with it."

Neptune smiled at them. "Thank you." She reached up and rubbed her eyes as they teared up. "Thank you both so much."

Kurome suddenly chuckled and the other three looked at her, Histoire in anger and the other two in confusion. "Don't think that beating this world's Nepsy will be easy, Nepsy." She started to fade away. "Not with how corrupted you are."

The last thing they saw was Kurome's annoying smirk as she faded away.

"Come on..." Chrome said softly as she gave Neptune's shoulder a squeeze. "We need to go."

"I have a suggestion." Histoire spoke up. "This might sound weird, but how about we walk out the front door?" She could sense the stupefied looks on Chrome and Neptune's faces and she smiled. "Believe me, you taking me and Chrome out the front door will only have people shrugging, since the you of this world is known for being random."

Neptune and Chrome both looked at each other and shrugged. They didn't have any better plans.

"I hope this works." Chrome muttered softly.

(-)

"I can't believe that worked." Chrome muttered as they left the Basilicom. A couple of people had stopped them and wished them well and asked where Nepgear was, but when Neptune said she didn't know, they nodded and left them alone. "...What's wrong?" She saw the look of sadness on Neptune's face.

"...That Nepgear is the CPU Candidate here and when I said I didn't know where she was..." Neptune walked forward, her steps somewhat lifeless. "They acted like it was normal."

"Neptune?" Chrome asked softly as she could feel Neptune's mood quickly souring. "Neptune?"

"I've never been a good big sister, I'm always relying on Nep Jr. for everything..."

Chrome said nothing and pulled Neptune to the side and hid behind a tree as she pulled Neptune against her. She patted Neptune's back as the shorter CPU hugged her back. "I don't believe that for a moment." Chrome said to her. "I think you're a better big sister than you know."

"I'm not!" Neptune protested. "I was so mean to Nep Jr. for years. How did she put up with someone as selfish and mean as me?"

"But it's not you." Chrome said as she tried to help Neptune relax. When Neptune protested her again, she sighed. "Fine! Think of yourself as a bad big sister all you want, but I know that Peashy, Rom and Ram would all disagree with that statement." Neptune looked up, teary-eyed and somewhat hopeful and Chrome smiled at her. "Besides, if you're that worried about her, why don't we find the other you and stop her abuse of your sister?"

Neptune smiled softly as she let go of the hug and wiped her tears. "...Yeah, that sounds good."

(-)

Elsewhere...

Nepgear let out a faux bark that had Neptune looking back at her. She did a whimper and whine and Neptune sighed, shaking her head.

"Do you need to go potty, girl?" Neptune asked and Nepgear shook her head, whimpering. "Aww, such a smart girl." She reached up and scratched where Nepgear's ear was.

"Um..." Nepgear looked a bit nervous. "Can I speak normally, sis?"

Neptune sighed and pouted as she pulled her hand away. "And what do you want?"

"It's... Um..." Nepgear fidgeted slightly. "There's people here in Planeptune from other nations and..."

"Oh!" Neptune smiled at her. "I know all about it. I'll let my knights deal with them. But if they don't in a couple of days, I guess I'll have to do it myself." She sighed and looked upset at that. "I really don't want to, but then again..." A sinister smile came to her face that had Nepgear looking at Neptune in abject terror. "I guess I should stop putting off my plan like I have since I became a CPU, huh?"

"...Plan?" Nepgear asked. "What plan?"

The Void of Planeptune continued to grin in amusement. "I can't tell you, Nepgear. Not yet." She winked and turned away, rubbing her hands together while a dark, sinister smirk covered her face. "Just wait for the surprise. I'm sure that you'll enjoy it when I reveal it." She looked over her shoulder and her smile continued to unsettle Nepgear. "And even if you don't, don't worry, I'll make sure that you won't be able to complain when I implement it."

For some reason, Nepgear wasn't reassured by those words. 'Still,' she thought to herself, smiling at Neptune, 'I know that she cares for me. Big sis wouldn't let something bad happen to me.'

(-)

Elsewhere...

"Gust is tired." The bunny girl muttered as she, Compa and Warechu walked through a random area of Planeptune. As far as Gust could tell, it was a residential area as there were nothing but private houses, small yards that were surrounded by fences and people mulling about talking to each other before heading inside.

"I'm sorry, Gust," Compa pouted as she looked around, "I thought that taking a transporter to a random location might help us out."

"At least we aren't facing down robots, tentacle monsters or monsters." Gust said and sighed as she saw a yard with a mother watching over her young children. "Gust just wishes there was a place to sit down to eat."

"Well, maybe..." Compa trailed off as she saw someone with blonde hair walking in their direction while looking down at some sort of device in their hands. "Excuse me." She said when they were close enough.

"Huh?" The person looked up and Compa smiled at the person, who they could tell was a girl now that they were close to her. "Can I help you?"

Compa smiled at her. "Yes, I'm a bit lost with my friends here and we were wondering if there was a rest place or something nearby that we could stop at."

The girl gave her a raised eyebrow and pointed to the side. "You're about an hour away on foot to the nearest diner in this section of Planeptune."

"Nerts." Gust grumbled. "Gust doesn't want to walk for another hour."

The girl looked at the two of them and at Warechu before smiling softly. "Well, if you don't mind waiting for an hour for the bus to come by, you can stay at my place." The three looked at her and she smirked at them. "Surprised?" They nodded and the girl laughed at them. "It's okay though, I got nothing to do today since Nep Nep isn't seeing me today."

"Nep Nep?" Compa asked, tilting her head. "A bit short, purple hair, purple eyes, really nice girl who helps those who need her?"

"The visual description sounds like Nep Nep." The girl nodded, "though helping those who need her isn't accurate. She'll help if she wants to, but..." She shrugged. "Oh, I should introduce myself." She smiled at them. "My name's B-Sha, one of Nep Nep's closest people."

Compa had a confused look on her face while Gust sighed. "Gust thinks that she is talking about the Neptune from here, not our Neptune."

"You have a Nep Nep too?" B-Sha asked, tilting her head in confusion. "Wait, before you tell me, how about we get to my place and you can explain it to me there?"

"How can we trust you?" Warechu asked as he narrowed his eyes. "The last time we went to someone's place we ended up nearly getting killed several times over."

B-Sha scratched her head. "Hmm... Well, you can sit in my front yard until the bus shows up and we can talk there?"

"Gust just wants to sit down." The bunny girl groused as B-Sha guided them to her place, which happened to be two houses away in the direction that they had come from. "This place looks nice." She said as she looked at the yard, which was pretty small and mostly dirt and the house was a yellow one-story building.

"It's easy to look nice when I barely live here." B-Sha admitted as they entered her yard. "Just wait right here," she said and went inside.

"I hope that she's not planning on pulling out a trap or something, Chu..." Warechu muttered.

A few moments later, B-Sha returned from inside with some folding lawn chairs. "I really should get more furniture for my place, but I'm glad that I have these."

After unfolding the chairs and getting settled into them, everyone sighed in relief as they got off of their feet.

Well, except Warechu, who was sitting on Compa's lap and cuddling against her.

"Must be nice to have a pet that can talk." B-Sha giggled at Compa, who tilted her head in confusion.

"But Warechu isn't my pet." She said, her cheeks turning slightly red. "He's, um... Special."

"That's right, Chu." Warechu said, nodding his head and B-Sha looked at them in confusion before her eyes widened.

"Oh! Okay." B-Sha smiled at them. "Whatever works for you, I guess. So, can you tell me about your Nep Nep?"

Compa smiled at B-Sha and nodded. "Yeah, she just showed up at our outpost one day randomly and things got really exciting shortly after that..."

As B-Sha listened to the story that Compa, Gust and Warechu told her, she found herself unwilling to stop them.

"...And then we met the CPU of Lastation and..." Compa trailed off as a honking sound was heard and B-Sha looked up to see the bus coming down the street. "Oh! That's our ride!"

B-Sha sighed and nodded. "Yeah. The diner's got some good food and there's a motel not far from there if you're looking for a place to stay for the night." The three of them nodded and got off of the lawn chairs with Gust and Compa stretching before they all said their goodbyes and went to the edge of the street to wave down the bus.

After they got on the bus, B-Sha bit her lip softly. "...Their Nep Nep sounds really nice." She sighed before reaching into her pocket and pulling out a cell phone and dialing a number.

_"What do you want, B-Sha?"_

"Hey, Mina..." B-Sha began, "you wouldn't believe what I just found out."

As she walked inside to tell Mina what she had been told, B-Sha wondered if she'd ever have the chance to meet Compa's Neptune. 'She seems so nice.'

Even if she didn't care for sharing her Nep Nep time with Mina and RED, B-Sha still liked them as people.

To be continued...

* * *

Got nothing to say here. Just read and review, okay?


	87. Guild

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Just as an aside, this arc is not going to be anywhere near as long as the Lastation arc was.

...

Or at least, that's how I PLAN on doing this arc. We'll see.

* * *

Chapter 78

"Lady Uni..." Steamax said softly as he and Uni walked down a street. "What should we do? It is getting late."

Uni nodded and lightly bit her lip. "Getting Nepgear away from her sister kind of fell through, so I don't..." She trailed off as she heard a ringing coming from her pocket. "Huh?" Reaching into her pants pocket, she pulled out a cell phone and answered it. "Hello?"

"Hey!" She heard Neptune's voice on the other end. "I'm glad you answered. I have Histy and was wondering where you were at."

"Um..." Uni had a confused look on her face. "...How did you know I have a phone on me? And how did you get this number anyway?"

"I took one of Iffy's cellphones before we left the ship and put it in your pocket." Neptune answered her. "Iffy knows that you have one of her phones, so don't break it, she'll get mad at me."

"I'm tempted to break it now." Uni deadpanned and smirked as she heard Neptune's cry of dismay. "I'm neither that insensitive nor that careless with other people's stuff, so don't worry."

"Well, if you say so," Neptune didn't sound completely convinced, but she let it go, "so I called you first and I was wondering..."

"Well, I ran into someone named Nepgear," Uni pulled the phone away from her ear as Neptune let out a loud squeal. "HEY! That hurt, you know?!" She was glad she wasn't human, otherwise she would probably develop Tinnitus from that sudden and loud yell that was reverberating in her skull.

"Sorry, sorry." Neptune sounded apologetic at least. "I've been missing my Nep Jr. so much so the fact that you met my sister made me really happy."

Uni's face became solemn and she shook her head. "Neptune... I don't think that you'd like what we saw." She then described what she and Steamax had seen while they were out.

"...I see." Neptune sighed over the phone. "Nep Jr. wearing a maid outfit doesn't surprise me, even my Nep Jr. sometimes does that when I'm over-worked, but I never made her walk like that."

"...Hey, Neptune..." Uni said softly, "is this what Voids are really like?" She had heard what Rom, Ram and Filyn had said about the Voids they knew but had thought that they had been exaggerating somewhat.

"...Yeah." Neptune answered her and Uni sighed. "Hey, Uni, I..."

"It's okay. We should meet somewhere."

"Yeah, but... Is there a guild in Planeptune?" Neptune asked and there was a sound like someone talking on the other side next to Neptune. "Ah! Histy says there is one and we should go there."

"Histy, huh?" Uni said and nodded. "Okay. Where is..."

"Histy says we should use the transporters to get there quickly." Neptune answered her.

"Alright, we'll see you when we get there then." Uni nodded and hung up the phone. "Come on, Steamax." The robot ninja nodded and the two took off in search for a transporter.

(-)

Ten minutes later...

Uni walked into the main area of guild and looked around. The place was wide open with some papers on the wall with announcements and quests that people had put up, along with some computer terminals and Uni wondered why they would have paper on the walls explaining quests when they had terminals to do that stuff but shrugged it off as unimportant. The area with quests was like a hallway while the larger room that was connected to it had lots of large, circular tables, stairs on the sides and what looked like rooms upstairs for people to rest in.

"Lady Uni," Steamax spoke up, "the people in the other room seem really tense."

"Yeah, I noticed that too, it's like when..." Uni's red eyes widened as she saw Neptune, Chrome, some small fairy she didn't recognize sitting at a large table with Rom, Ram, Filyn and Peashy. "Well, I think I know why everyone's so tense."

"Indeed," Steamax nodded and the two walked over to the table. "Lady Neptune, Lady Chrome, I take it that this fairy is one of the objectives?"

"This is Histy." Neptune smiled as Uni and Steamax sat down. "Histy, this is Uni and her bodyguard."

"The CPU Candidate of Lastation?" Histoire asked and Uni noticed that she wasn't looking at anything in particular as she saw how Histoire's eyes looked like they had been removed.

"That's right." Uni answered Histoire, who turned to look in her general direction. "I've heard about you. You're the one who records everything in the world?"

"Sadly, in my current state, that might be impossible." Histoire told Uni. "Still," she smiled gently, "the fact that all of the CPU Candidates of the other nations are here, alive and in one piece fills me with hope for the future."

"You asked big sis Neptune to help us and bring us here, right?" Rom asked, getting a nod from Histoire.

"Yes," Histoire said softly.

"Anyway," Chrome, who was sitting next to Neptune, spoke up, "what did all of you do while you were out?"

"We met this crazy magic lady." Peashy said. "She had blue hair and acted really silly, but she kicked me really hard and beat Rom and Ram in magic."

"...Crazy blue haired magic lady?" Neptune had a contemplative look on her face. "...She sounds really familiar somehow."

"Sadly I do not know." Histoire shook her head. "I don't know anyone outside of the CPU of Planeptune."

"Her name is MAGES.," Ram spoke up, "she was really strong and scary."

Neptune snapped her fingers as she recalled who that was. "Ah! Right! MAGES.! I haven't seen her since she showed up in Plutie's world and hung out for several years."

"...Hung out for years?" Chrome muttered softly in confusion. "What..?"

"Ah!" Neptune smiled at her. "I was stuck in another dimension for over twenty years, remember?" Chrome's eyes widened as she recalled the conversation she and Neptune had awhile ago. "It was something like one year in Plutie's world was like a day in my world until Nepgear, Plutie and I did something crazy with shares and linked Plutie's world and mine together and now we can visit each other whenever we want."

"I assume it also fixed the time difference between your worlds?" Steamax asked, getting a nod from Neptune. "Interesting, I had no clue you CPUs could do something like that."

Neptune just grinned while giggling. "So, what else happened?"

"We went into the catacombs to go monster hunting." Filyn answered her. "There was a boss monster of a really deep floor on a higher floor, so we had to go kill it."

After Filyn, Peashy, Rom and Ram finished explaining what they went through, Neptune tapped her chin. "Huh, how come you didn't use a Holy Hand Grenade?" They gave her a blank look and Neptune sighed heavily. "Don't worry about it, just watch out for knights who want a shrubbery from now on."

It didn't take long for a waitress to come over to the table, she looked at Neptune nervously and smiled as best she could. "So, what can I get the CPU of Planeptune and her guests?"

Neptune gave the girl a confused look. "You look familiar to me." The girl had long, shaggy blue hair, a really petite body and blue eyes. She was wearing a waitress outfit and trembling. "Don't be so nervous, I won't bite you."

"Ah heh heh..." The waitress gulped heavily. "A...Anyway, c..Can I get your orders?"

"Ah, miss," Steamax spoke up, "while I know that she looks like the Void of Planeptune, please, rest assured that she is just someone who looks like her by random coincidence." The waitress looked at Steamax, a hopeful, but timid look on her face as she looked at Neptune. "Believe me when I say that this girl is not the person that you know."

"I-Is that so?" The girl started shaking and giggling. "I-I-I'm so-s-sorry, it's just..."

Neptune sighed and smiled gently at the girl. "It's okay, can we order then?"

"Oh!" The girl's eyes widened. "Y-y-y-yes, of course!"

Neptune sighed heavily and wondered why the girl seemed so familiar to her.

After getting the order written down on her data pad, the girl smiled, still obviously nervous and left the table to head to the back.

"Hey," one of the other waitresses said as she went into the kitchen, trembling. "How bad was it?"

"N...Not bad." The girl smiled, still looking like she was about to pass out. "They said that she just looks like our CPU, but I'm still worried that it is her."

"Hey, NISA," the other waitress smiled at her softly, "just relax, you're okay now." NISA nodded, panting heavily. "Why don't you take a few minutes and relax, okay?"

"Thanks." NISA smiled at her friend and walked into the back office, sitting on a chair to try and relax.

No one bothered to get her until the food for that table was ready.

To be continued...

* * *

Hey! It's NISA! The only Maker I hadn't gotten into the story yet. She drop-kicked me for not having her in the story yet.


	88. Interlude: Purple

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Time for a short blurb chapter.

* * *

Interlude: Purple

"Goodnight, Nepgear." Neptune smiled sweetly at her younger sister and walked out of the room. "That was fun today." She'd have to take her sister for walkies more often, it was always so amusing to see Nepgear's embarrassment from being forced to act like her pet.

Her good mood evaporated as she walked past the stairs to her room and went to one of the back rooms. Entering the room, she ignored the sensation of death, destruction and chaos that permeated the air. The walls were blue and the ceiling was black while the floor was tiled. There was only one thing in the middle of the room that hovered off the ground. "I guess I should stop putting this off, huh?" Neptune whispered to herself as she put her right hand on the object in the center of the room. "The only thing that you left me that I care about, Uranus." The name was said with such malice and venom that it was lucky no one else was in the room. Neptune suddenly smiled to herself. "After all, this sword is how I killed you."

*Flash*

"So what's this sword?" Neptune asked her elder sister as the two entered the room.

Uranus, a woman with a medium build, short green hair, blue eyes, and a modest bust smirked at Neptune. "This is the sword that my elder sister told me about. She said it was some sort of legendary weapon from another dimension that can instantly kill any Goddess."

"So how is it here?" Neptune asked as she looked at the purple bladed weapon.

"My sister, as much as I hated her, had the ability to alter reality. She willed this sword into reality." Uranus shrugged, it didn't matter to her. "I do know that it can kill a Goddess instantly though. After all," she chuckled, "even if Uzume was distracted, she should have been able to shrug off her head being removed if this sword couldn't kill her instantly."

"...I see." Neptune nodded and reached into her hoodie. "Are you planning on killing me with it?"

"Maybe." Uranus smirked at her little sister. "But then again, I guess I just don't want you killing yourself by accident with this thing."

"Well, thanks for that." Neptune smiled and pulled something out of her pocket. "Hey, Uranus," her elder sister looked at her curiously, "you should know, I'm thankful that you've taught me so much, but I absolutely despise you." She narrowed her eyes while grinning as she held up an object that had Uranus instantly going pale. "The Fearicite was really easy to get to." She giggled at her elder sister. "And since I don't want you around anymore..."

Uranus watched in shock and horror as Neptune opened her mouth and swallowed the Fearicite. She took a step back as Neptune was engulfed in crackling dark energy. "It can... GURLK!" She gasped out as she looked down and saw a purple blade stabbing her in the stomach while the energy dissipated to reveal Neptune's transformed state.

"I'm now Purple Void," the transformed Neptune sneered at Uranus, "_dear_ sister." She slashed upwards, bathing her body in her dying sister's blood.

Purple Void chuckled as she looked at the sword and saw its name engraved into the base of the blade. "Gehaburn, huh?" That was good to know.

*End Flash*

"It's been twenty-five years since then." Neptune whispered to herself. Her eyes burned with both hatred and rage. "Soon I'll end everything."

Neptune's shoulders shook as she fought back the urge to laugh. "This broken world's cycle of pain and misery will soon end for good."

To be continued...

* * *

...Well, that was a different way to become a Void.

...Why do you think I'm posting two chapters today?


	89. Sisters

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Hey, a second chapter on the same day? Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 79

Walking into the Basilicom in the early morning was always a pain for Cave. While she had mastered working long days on only a couple of hours of sleep, she was like most people and would rather have at least six hours of sleep a night. MAGES. often made fun of her sleeping habits, especially after Cave ended up taking a two hour nap for no reason.

That was neither the first nor the last time that Cave had taken sudden naps for no reason.

Rubbing her eyes to get rid of the gunk that had built up and fighting the urge to yawn, she looked around and saw the over-night staff that were looking tired, but were doing their best to greet anyone that walked in and deal with stuff. "Good morning." She nodded at one of the girls.

"Good morning, Chief Security Officer." The staff member said to Cave. "I know you're shocked by this as well, but yes, the CPU is actually awake right now."

Cave nodded and smirked to herself. "If she's awake now, I wonder if she'll be taking a nap later." The Basilicom staff members all chuckled nervously at that. If the CPU got to sleep at night, she slept in, but if she stayed up and took a nap, well...

They had no clue how long she would be asleep. So far her record was a week straight, though some people wondered if she was really sleeping that long or if she just didn't bother getting out of her room and stayed in bed all day.

Cave walked to the tall stairs and went up them and wondered why the CPU would have her room at the top of so many stairs. She understood why the CPU would have her room where it was though, since the Void of Planeptune was an attention whore unlike any that Cave had ever known and always seemed to want people to know when she was around. When she got to the top, she stopped to take a deep breath before pressing the button to the CPU's room.

"Who is it?"

"Cave, my lady." Cave answered and was told to enter the room, which she did.

Sitting on her bed and looking extremely tired, was the Void of Planeptune, Neptune, who gave Cave a hard look. "I'm pretty sure you know where those invaders from the other nations are at, right?"

"...I have an idea where they are, why do you ask?" Cave wondered what her CPU's plan was.

Yawning, Neptune waved her hand. "Deliver a message to them for me." Cave tilted her head and nodded. "In three days, because I'm going to take a nap after you leave, the Knights and I will be coming for them." Cave stiffened and Neptune smirked at her. "Oh, and you'll be joining us."

"Huh? But I'm..."

"Head of the security forces and someone whom I will have as one of my Knights." Neptune told her, causing Cave to go silent. "MAGES. has been wanting you to join for awhile now, so you're going to join." She smirked at Cave. "So think of this as a test. If you manage to do well in helping me deal with these invaders, you'll become a Knight."

"Yes." Cave nodded and took a knee while bowing to Neptune. "It will be an honor to serve you." After all, refusing Neptune's offer was... Not a smart idea.

"Anyway, go do what you gotta do." Neptune told her and flopped back onto her bed. "I'm gunna take a nap. Oh, and have someone tell my sister that's she free to do what she wants for a couple of days."

"Right." Cave nodded and left the room. After getting out, she sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Have someone inform Lady Nepgear, huh?"

(-)

A couple of minutes later...

There was a knock on her door and Nepgear looked confused but she turned from where she was sitting in front of a mirror while brushing her hair. "Come in." She had her pajamas on and wasn't showing any indecent amount of skin. Plus she knew it had to be someone other than Neptune, her sister never knocked when she came into the room.

"Excuse me for the intrusion, Lady Nepgear." Cave said as she entered the room.

Nepgear's eyes widened as she saw Cave and she smiled. "It's been so long!"

Cave looked at Nepgear with a bit of a sad smile on her face. "Lady Nepgear, your sister told me to tell you that she was going to be taking a nap for a couple of days and that you were free to do what you wanted during that time."

Nepgear looked surprised but it didn't take her long to smile. "Well, it would be nice to get out of here without having to worry about getting back before my sister decides to try something weird again." She giggled at Cave's expression. "Maybe I can see that Uni girl and her boyfriend again?"

"Uni?" Cave gave her a confused look and Nepgear nodded, smiling.

"Yeah, she claims to be the CPU Candidate of Lastation and she seems kind of interesting."

Cave raised an eyebrow. "Interesting?"

"Well," Nepgear pouted at Cave, "I've never met anyone from another nation before, so I thought..."

"If you hurry up and get dressed, I'll take you to where she is." Cave interrupted Nepgear, who stared in shock, which caused Cave to smile at her. "I have to deliver a message to them today anyway."

"AH!" Nepgear's eyes seemingly lit up. "Let me get dressed then!" She quickly stripped out of her clothes, leaving her in her frilly, sexy underwear, while Cave turned around to give Nepgear some privacy while she got dressed. "ACK! I hate trying to get these stockings on."

"You know that you could wear something other than your sexy maid outfit." Cave told her.

"But big sis always finds out when I wear something else." Nepgear protested as she got her garter belt on. "The last time she found out, I was forced to wear a tiny thong and no skirt for a week." Nepgear pouted heavily. "It was so embarrassing to have people staring at my butt for that time. And big sis kept telling me that she could have spanked me so that I would have a bright red bum."

Cave sighed and felt her shoulders slumping. "Lady Nepgear... Why do you put up with it?"

"She's my sister." Nepgear told her. "Besides, I know she does mean things, but I know that she cares about me."

Cave was silent and looked back at Nepgear, who was putting the finishing touches on her maid outfit. 'Does she though?'

There were times that Cave wanted to take Nepgear away from the CPU of Planeptune, but she knew that it wouldn't end well for anyone. 'Our CPU is too possessive of her.'

"I'm ready." Nepgear smiled as she finished her outfit.

"Then let's go." Cave smiled softly.

(-)

A little while later...

Uni sighed as she, Rom and Filyn all walked downstairs into the main area of the guild. "So you need to go back into the catacombs today?" She asked Filyn, who nodded at her.

"Yeah, even if we took care of that scary boss monster, there were other monsters and it wouldn't hurt to take down a few more." Filyn told her. "Plus we..."

"Excuse me." A member of the guild staff spoke up and the three looked at her. "There's someone here looking for you."

"Huh?" All three looked confused and turned to where the staff member was pointing. Standing there was a redhead with her hair in pigtails while wearing a skin-tight black body suit and a girl in a French Maid outfit that Uni instantly recognized.

"Oh hey!" Uni smiled at the purple-haired girl. "It's Nepgear."

"Isn't that big sis's little sister?" Rom asked, getting a nod from Filyn and Uni. "Neat!" She smiled, knowing that Neptune would be happy to see her little sister. Part of her, however, was worried now that they had found Nepgear that Neptune would no longer care about them.

The redhead and Nepgear walked over to the three girls. "Good morning." The redhead said to them. "I don't suppose that one of you could get the rest of your group together so I can deliver this message once, could you?"

"I'll go get the others." Filyn said as she turned and ran back upstairs to the rooms.

Nepgear smiled at Uni and waved while looking somewhat nervous. After all, she had no clue how things were with Uni's group, for all she knew the rest of Uni's group were really bad people.

Cave looked at Uni and then at Rom and closed her eyes while taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out. Opening her eyes, she walked over to Uni and Rom. "You're the CPU Candidates of Lastation and Lowee, correct?" Both girls jerked in surprise and Cave smirked at them. "Here's a tip, if you're trying to keep a secret, don't react like that when someone says something that's too close to home."

"What are you going to do?" Rom asked.

Cave sighed and shook her head. "MAGES. is right, you need to control your temper." Rom looked surprised and Cave gave her a look of understanding. "I can see the anger in your eyes, girl."

"Might I ask you not to scare them?" Cave looked to the person who spoke and saw a woman with long silver hair who wore pants, boots and a shirt that looked a little out of place in Planeptune, but wasn't too uncommon for those who went to the catacombs constantly. Next to her was a girl with blonde hair, the one-eyed girl, a girl with long brown hair and...

"Neptune?!" Nepgear gasped as she saw the last girl.

"Nep..." Neptune's face was pale as she saw her younger sister. "Nepgear..?" She was going to run forward when Chrome grabbed her arm. "What?" She gave Chrome a hurt and confused look. "You see her too, right?"

"Yes, but I don't want you falling down and breaking your neck or something." Chrome pointed out.

"I've fallen thousands of feet before and only had a small bump on the head." Neptune pointed out and Chrome sighed, nodded and let go of Neptune's arm. "Thank you." She smiled at Chrome before turning to Nepgear. "NEPGEAR!"

"WAGH!" Nepgear let out a cry as Neptune dive-tackled her, from the stairs, at speeds that had everyone staring in shock.

"It's you!" Neptune cried out as she hugged Nepgear while the two were crashed onto the ground. "Oh I missed you so much!"

"Ack!" Nepgear's eyes were wide and she had a shocked look on her face as Neptune started babbling about how it had been so long since she had seen her and things that she didn't know. "Wh...What the..?"

Seeing Neptune hugging Nepgear tightly and sobbing, Chrome just smiled and walked up to Cave, who was looking at the scene in a mixture of confusion and worry. "Just give them a little bit, okay?"

"I am..." Cave began and Chrome just gave her a knowing look.

"Believe me, it's probably confusing for you, for that girl, for a lot of people," Chrome looked at the sheer look of happiness and tears on Neptune's face and could only smile softly. "But just let her get this out of her system and then we can talk."

Cave looked at the girl who looked so much like her CPU and the look of sheer joy on her face and decided that she could abide by that request.

After all, she knew that her CPU would never look that happy no matter what.

To be continued...

* * *

You were expecting a rescue of Nepgear? But it was me, DIO! All along!

Okay, now that I got that reference out of the way, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.


	90. Interlude: Hyperdimension 5

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Someone wanted me to go back to the Hyperdimension, so here you go. It's not very long, but you'll like it... Maybe?

* * *

Interlude: Hyperdimension 5

Nepgear smiled as she walked into the living room. "How are you, Croire?" Croire gave her an annoyed look. "...That bad?"

"Damn right." Croire shot back at her. "Even with all the food and stuff I've been taking, I still need... At least..." She shook her head. "Three hours? Maybe?"

"...And you can go then?" Nepgear asked, hopeful and Croire nodded.

"Heh, yeah, I'll go and get your dumb big sister back." Croire just ignored Nepgear's thanks. "Though, it might not be a bad idea to give her a call and let her know what's going on. She said it was one day here and one month there, right?"

Nepgear nodded at Croire. "Yeah. So three hours here should be... Almost four days there?" Croire nodded and Nepgear had a melancholic look on her face. "Hey, Croire... What's the dark side of the dimensions like?"

Croire shook her head. "You don't want to know." When Nepgear gave her a look of pleading, she shook her head. "No way! You really don't want to know what kinds of twisted things exist on that side of dimensional space. You thought Zerodimension was freaky with the monsters? Those things wouldn't be out of place with some of the worlds on the dark side of the dimensions."

"...Is it really that bad?" Nepgear asked while sitting down near Croire.

"I once ended up in a world where there were only ten kinds of life forms." Croire had a mixture of disgust and awe on her face as she remembered that world. "Nine of the ten wanted to kill and eat you." She smirked at Nepgear's dumbfounded look. "Oh, and the best part? The tenth one just wanted to kill you."

"...That's all that was there?" Nepgear didn't think it sounded too bad, though it was rough if everything wanted to kill and eat you.

"The first creature I ran into was a giant centipede that had the head of a bear and the tongue of a snake."

"...That's a lot more terrifying then." Nepgear conceded. "Do you think Neptune's okay?"

"Well, have you given her a call?" Croire asked Nepgear, who looked troubled. "...Lemme guess, it didn't go through?"

Nepgear shook her head. "No, I got a "could not be completed" message."

Croire nodded, "figures. Considering you're calling to the other side of dimensional space, there's a time difference between the dimensions and who knows what else, it's a miracle we can even talk to her at all."

"...Croire, I really am worried about Neptune." Nepgear gave the dark-skinned fairy a worried look. She clasped her hands in front of her. "This isn't like when she was trapped in Plutia's world. At least she and Plutia became friends and the Noire there also became her friend, so she had help and it wasn't too bad. But she sounds so tired and worn out every time we talk this time."

The door to the living room opened up and Uzume came walking in with a sealed bag in one hand. "Oh! Crosy! Gearsy!" The redhead smiled at them. "Glad you're here."

"What's with the rupee bag?" Croire asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Heh heh," Uzume grinned at Croire. "I figure Nepsy might need some help, so Histy and I were working on getting her some stuff that'll give her an edge. Crosy can figure out where she is if the phone's on, right?"

Nepgear frowned in confusion. "But Croire can't open a portal right now..."

"I can," Croire interrupted Nepgear, "just not one big enough for anyone to get through." She gulped at the look that Nepgear gave her. "Before you get mad, I've only been able to do it for the past ten minutes."

Nepgear pouted at Croire. "If I had known, I would have made some pudding for Neptune and sent it to her." She grabbed her hands and fidgeted. "I... I don't know why, but everytime I think about how she's doing, I feel a cold void in my chest, like something really bad is happening and I don't know why."

"No wonder everyone calls you a siscon." Croire smirked as Nepgear denied what Croire had said. "So where's the other Neptune anyway?"

"There were some bugs that she hadn't seen before in Virtua Forest, so she wanted to see them." Uzume answered.

"And she's trusting me to not run off on her?" Croire asked as she raised an eyebrow out of disbelief.

Uzume chuckled and pointed at Nepgear. "You think you'd escape her if you did?"

"Fair point." Croire sighed and hung her head.

"Anyway, Gearsy, where's the phone?" Uzume asked and Nepgear pointed to the kitchen. "Cool, I'll go see if I can get a hold of Nepsy and we can send this to her."

Nepgear nodded and sighed as Uzume left the room.

"You know the other CPUs have been calling and wondering what's going on with your sister." Croire told Nepgear, who nodded. "Well, just letting you know."

"Thanks." Nepgear smiled at her.

Histoire floated into the room about six minutes later. "Ah, Nepgear, I was wondering if..."

Suddenly Uzume's voice was heard yelling throughout the Basilicom. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN?!"

Nepgear felt her blood turn to ice as her face paled. Grabbing Croire, she ran for the kitchen and hoped that she was wrong.

End Interlude: Hyperdimension 5

* * *

I did the math, this works out. As for what's happening, you'll have to wait and find out.

Aren't I horrible? And this is what happens when you ask me for stuff. *Evil grin*


	91. New Mission

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Back to the regularly scheduled fic now.

* * *

Chapter 80

"Boy, I feel kind of embarrassed going off like that." Neptune giggled as the group sat at a large, round table in the corner of the room. Nepgear and Chrome sat on either side of her with Rom and Ram sitting on either side of them with Filyn, Peashy, Uni with Steamax next to her and Cave sitting across from Neptune.

"I can imagine." Cave smirked at her. "I can't believe how much you look like our CPU."

"Well..." Neptune began and wondered how to explain it before mentally shrugging. "I'm from Gamindustri."

"...Gamindustri?" Cave asked, confused and she could see that Nepgear was a little confused as well, but it seemed like she had some clue as to what was going on. "I've never heard of that place."

"I'm not surprised," Chrome told her, "after all, it's an entirely different universe." Chrome and Cave both gave Neptune a look demanding she explained things in detail.

"Well..." Neptune trailed off and scratched her chin. "It's like Chrome says. I'm from another dimension."

"You expect me to believe that?" Cave asked, a look of curiosity on her face.

"Well," Neptune tapped her chin, "not really, but then again, how do you explain me looking so much like your CPU?"

"I dunno," Cave gave her a flat stare, "maybe you're a clone of our CPU?" She blinked as Neptune's face suddenly smacked into the table. "Uh..?"

"Now I know how Noire felt when I called her a clone when I first ended up in Plutie's world." Neptune muttered against the table. She lifted her head and gave Cave a flat stare.

"I can guarantee you that Neptune is not a clone." Histoire, who was in front of Neptune, "and yes, she is from another dimension."

Cave looked at Histoire and shook her head. "I do not know you, but it's not worth arguing over." She looked at Nepgear and then at Neptune. "And what is your plan for Lady Nepgear?"

"Well..." Neptune trailed off and looked at Nepgear, smiling softly, "I want to help her become a good CPU, not a Void."

"But my sister doesn't want me to become a Void either." Nepgear pointed out to Neptune, who looked at her in surprise. Nepgear looked kind of nervous at the look she got. "She told me that she didn't want to fight me to the death or anything."

Uni snorted at hearing that. "Considering how she treats you, I think she has some other reason for not wanting you to become a Void." Nepgear was confused and Uni sighed, before clarifying. "I saw how she was treating you yesterday." There was a smoldering look of anger in her eyes. "That was... Disgusting."

"Did the bad Neptuna tie her up?" Peashy asked.

"Or break her ribs?" Rom asked.

"Or make her watch while she hurt others?" Ram asked.

"What the heck?!" Nepgear's eyes were wide and blank. "No! My sister just made me pretend to be a dog and go for a walk."

"While putting a collar and leash on your neck and making you beg to get a cookie." Uni shot back at her.

"But that's just how she plays and..." Nepgear tried to defend herself before Chrome interrupted.

"Neptune, did you ever make your sister in your world do stuff like that?"

"Well," Neptune tilted her head, "there was the time that I had to run off with Plutie and the others and I had Nep Jr. watch the babies and I forgot to get her a gift. And I kind of shoved all my work off on her for awhile before that..." Neptune grimaced. "I don't want to talk about it, I was a bad big sister then."

"The fact that you're upset by how you were back then shows that you've grown." Chrome pointed out to her. "Plus I have a feeling that your younger sister didn't need as much guidance as Rom, Ram and Peashy have needed."

"Well..." Neptune looked at Nepgear and smiled. "Yeah. My Nep Jr.'s a bit of a pushover, but she's earnest and she stands up for herself more these days. But she was always a hard worker who wanted to make everyone happy."

"I see," Cave said while her eyes were closed. "I don't know if I believe that you are from another dimension, but I can believe that you are different from our CPU at least." She opened her eyes and gave Neptune a serious look. "I have a message to give you. The CPU wishes to meet with you in two days, probably around noon."

"To fight, huh?" Neptune sighed and she rolled her eyes at Cave's confused look. "I've fought every other Void that I've met so far, why wouldn't I fight me?" Neptune had a confused look on her face. "So if I fight me, does that make me..."

"No." Chrome told her. "Whatever you're thinking, no."

Cave chuckled and stood up. "I see, well, there's one other piece of information I wish to pass on." Neptune nodded and Cave looked at Nepgear for a few moments before looking back at Neptune. "Would you be so kind as to watch over Lady Nepgear for the next couple of days?"

"What the heck?!" Nepgear had a shocked expression with blank, white eyes with black rings around them. "What are you saying, Cave?" She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "I hardly know them!"

"Forgive me, Lady Nepgear," Cave told her, "but I would feel better if you were watched over for a couple of days."

Nepgear sighed. "I guess..."

"Hey," Ram spoke up, smiling at Nepgear, "it'll be fun. Big Sis Neptune is awesome." Nepgear smiled back at her, though it looked somewhat forced to everyone at the table.

"If that is all, I must be going." Cave bowed to them. "I do have to make sure that the Knights are informed of this development." Straightening up, she turned and left, her body moving in such a way that most people in the room had to stop and stare as she walked out.

"Boy I hope she doesn't walk near traffic when it's busy," Neptune had a lewd grin on her face as she giggled at the thought of Cave's hips and butt distracting people while driving.

"I hope you're not thinking it's funny if people would get hurt while distracted while looking at her rear end." Chrome gave Neptune a disappointed look and Neptune shook her head.

"No! I don't want anyone getting hurt!" Neptune protested. "It was a lewd thought, I couldn't help but giggle."

Chrome sighed and gave Neptune a rueful look. "Get your mind out of the gutter." She rolled her eyes at the pout that Neptune gave her.

There was a sudden giggling sound and Neptune and Chrome both looked at Nepgear as she held her hand over her mouth while she giggled. "What the.. hee hee, it's like I'm watching a comedy sketch on television."

"Lady Neptune, Lady Chrome, I wish to speak to the two of you in private." Steamax spoke up as he stood up, along with the other two. "Lady Uni, I..."

"It's fine, go." Uni nodded and smiled at Nepgear. "I think we should introduce ourselves, huh? You know me and I'm the CPU Candidate of Lastation."

"Pea next!" Peashy held her arms into the air. "I'm from Leanbox and I'm supposed to be a good CPU too!" Nepgear looked at Uni to translate and Uni sighed.

"She's the CPU Candidate from Leanbox." Uni supplied for Nepgear. "She's kind of stupid but she's a good girl."

"Pea is not dumb!" Peashy gave Uni a dirty look.

Uni shook her head. "No, you aren't, but you don't say the right thing when you talk and come across as stupid."

"Oh." Peashy pouted.

"I'm Ram," Ram smiled at Nepgear, "and this is Rom," she motioned to her sister, "and we're the CPU Candidates of Lowee."

"...How does that work?" Nepgear asked and Rom, Ram, Filyn and Uni all shrugged, none of them were certain either.

"I'm Filyn," the one-eyed girl spoke up, "former CPU Candidate of Eden." She sighed at the confused look Nepgear gave her. "I was the final CPU Candidate born before the Fearicite came to be. And Eden no longer exists."

"Ah!" Nepgear instantly understood. "Sorry for your nation disappearing." She gave Filyn an apologetic look and Filyn shrugged at her.

"I barely remember Eden, it's harder on Chromey, she was the CPU when the Fearicite came into being." Filyn shrugged at her.

"I am Histoire," Histoire spoke up, joining in the introductions. "At one point my job was to protect and guide Gamworld while assisting the CPUs. Sadly, as you can see, that currently is impossible."

"Um..." Nepgear looked at Filyn, "You said that Chromey was the CPU of Eden, right?" Filyn nodded, "so that makes her your big sister, right?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"Well," Nepgear looked a little nervous, "she seems really close to the girl that looks like my big sister, so..."

"That girl is your big sister," Histoire interrupted. "Another version from another dimension, yes, but she is most certainly your big sister. As for why they're so close, I cannot answer."

"Because they spend a lot of time together." Ram pointed out. "Miss Chrome has been a lot of help for Big Sis Neptune on our trip."

"I see." Nepgear smiled and looked at the group. "So, what now?"

"I want to get stronger." Rom said, a fire in her eyes. "I want to prove to that stupid magic girl that she's wrong about me and Ram."

"I see..." Nepgear smiled at her, not really getting it, but she understood the desire to get stronger.

(-)

As the three got into a spare room, Steamax looked at Chrome and Neptune, the latter of whom closed the door behind her, before looking around, his eyes glowing softly. "Okay, there's no listening devices in here." He said, his voice soft and turned back to Neptune and Chrome. "I was thinking, since we have the CPU Candidate of Planeptune, would either of you object to me assassinating the Void of Planeptune?" Both of them looked at him in surprise and he continued to speak. "As she is sleeping right now, it would be easy to sneak in and eliminate her."

Neptune looked a little conflicted and wasn't sure how to answer when Chrome gave her shoulder a squeeze. Neptune looked at her and Chrome smiled softly. "Chrome?"

"With how your Fearicite infection is going, I worry about you." Chrome told her and looked at Steamax. "Do it."

Neptune nodded after thinking for a few more moments. "I know that Nep Jr. will probably hate me for this, but... The me of here is pretty bad, right?"

"It'll be done." Steamax said as he turned and walked to the window before opening it and disappearing through it.

"Chrome..." Neptune began and looked down. "...Did we do the right thing?"

Chrome pulled Neptune into a tight embrace. "I don't want you becoming a Void, Neptune. If we can keep you from fighting right now, that would be for the best." She sighed softly as Neptune hugged her tightly.

Even if it meant making Nepgear angry at them, Chrome would rather have the Void of Planeptune dealt with quickly and quietly like assassination rather than fight her. 'I won't let you become a Void, Neptune.' Chrome thought to herself as she tightened her hug. 'I promise you.'

To be continued...

* * *

Neptune, Steamax, let's hope this works.


	92. Overcoming Anger

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 81

"Can you excuse me?" Rom asked as she stood up from the table and walked away.

Uni watched her go and looked at Ram, who was chatting with Nepgear and Filyn. "Excuse me." She said and got up from the table and walked after the shorter girl.

"I wonder what's going on?" Nepgear asked as she watched Uni follow after Rom and turned back to Filyn, answering her questions as best she could.

(-)

Stepping outside, Rom didn't care if people saw her use her magic to launch herself to the top of the guild building. She stalked across the roof and glared at nothing in particular.

"You know, being mad for no reason isn't going to help anyone, much less yourself." Uni said from behind and Rom turned to look at the black-haired girl, who was walking towards her while not looking directly at her. "We're CPU Candidates, we can feel people's emotions, you know? That's something Neptune told me."

"What do you want then?" Rom asked and turned away from Uni to look across the city.

"To talk, to learn more about you, I dunno." Uni said and walked over to the edge of the roof that Rom was next to. The edge was slightly elevated from the roof of the building, allowing Rom to lean on it as she looked across Planeptune, and it allowed Uni to sit on it. "...What do you think will happen when we're done here?"

"I don't know." Rom answered Uni. "Maybe big sis Neptune can stay with us. Maybe she'll leave us for good."

"...You really love her, huh?" Uni asked and Rom nodded, her eyes tearing up. "...Is that why you're mad?" Uni asked, much to Rom's confusion. "Are you mad at her because she'll be leaving soon?"

"What?!" Rom had a shocked look on her face, "no! I could never be mad at big sis!"

Uni sighed and shifted so she could look out at Planeptune. The buildings were just as square and stone as she had ever seen them. "Are you mad at someone else then?" When Rom didn't answer her, Uni took that as a sign to continue talking. "I don't think I'd ever be able to be the CPU of Lastation."

"Huh?" Rom had no clue where this was coming from. "What do you mean?"

Uni had a downcast look on her face. "If becoming a good CPU means I have to care for the people of Lastation, I can't do it." She trembled as her eyes started to burn. "They... They took Noire from me. How can I care for them if they'd do that?"

"Uni..." Rom trailed off as images of what White Void had done to her and Ram flashed through her mind and how people only stopped to stare and watch as they were beaten and abused by White Void. "I..." She bit her lower lip and fought the urge to cry. "I hate them... The people of Lowee. They watched, they didn't do anything for me or Ram. They let us get beaten and hurt and no one ever tried to help us."

"Until Neptune?"

Rom shook her head. "Compa tried to help us, but she got her arms chopped off by White Void. No one else did. I..." She balled her hands into fists.

Uni looked at Rom and wished she knew what to do.

"I was forced to watch as that monster..." Tears flowed from Rom's eyes. "I had to watch her chop Compa's arms off!" She looked at Uni and the black-haired CPU Candidate could only look on, unsure how to respond to that. "Compa should hate me and Ram. But..." Rom screwed her eyes shut. "She still cares so much!"

"And Neptune was the first one to stand up for you."

Rom nodded at that. "Uh huh, yeah. I... I don't know what to do."

"Neither do I." Uni sighed heavily. "What should..." She trailed off as a thought came to her. "...Do you think maybe we should talk to Neptune? I mean.." Uni bit her lip lightly. "She is a CPU, even if she's silly at times, maybe she can help us?"

Rom's shoulders slumped. "...She'll be upset at me."

Uni gave Rom a sharp look, "you think she'll be anything like White Void?" Rom shook her head. "Then I think we'll be fine, come on." She got up and grabbed Rom's arm. "Let's go."

"WAGH!" Rom yelped out as she was pulled along and was moving in an exaggerated motion to try and keep her balance.

(-)

A few minutes later...

"Huh?" Neptune looked at Rom and Uni as she and Chrome had been pulled into the room that the two CPUs had used the night before. "What do you mean, Rom?"

Rom looked down, her face full of shame and loathing. "I... I really don't want you to be mad, but..." When no one said anything she looked up, tears filling her eyes, and continued. "I hate the people of Lowee. They... None of them tried to help me or Ram. I'm sorry!" Her tears fell as she looked down again, unable to look at Neptune. "I know you want me to be a good CPU, but I can't ever... I can't... I can't..."

When Rom felt hands on her shoulders, she looked up to see Neptune giving her a gentle smile. "Rom, it's okay." She hugged Rom, who hugged her tightly and started bawling her eyes out. "It's okay, it's okay, I'm not mad." She whispered as Rom cried even harder.

Both Chrome and Uni watched, silently, as Rom cried and apologized every other sentence while Neptune told her it was okay each time.

Eventually Rom stopped crying and pulled away, her face covered in tears while Neptune's shoulder was soaked from her crying. Neptune just smiled and reached up with her thumbs to gently rub the tears out of Rom's eyes. "I'm not mad, Rom."

"Tell me something, Uni." Chrome looked at the other CPU Candidate. "Do you feel anger and hate towards the people of Lastation?" She looked at Uni, who was looking down, before she nodded. "I see."

"Are you upset with me?" Uni asked.

"No." Neptune answered her. "I don't think Chrome is either."

"Of course not." Chrome shook her head. "I can't say that I'm happy to hear this from the two of you, but you were born from Fearicite, so I can't be upset. And," she trailed off and looked at Neptune. "I should have seen this coming." The other three looked at her and Chrome elaborated. "I've been so concerned about what Neptune's going through that I haven't thought about what the rest of you are feeling."

"But you aren't mad?" Rom asked with a troubled expression on her face. "I know you want me to be a good CPU, but I'm just..."

"Rom," Neptune smiled at her. "It's okay." Rom blinked a few times, not understanding, "I want you, Ram, P-Ko, Uni and even Nepgear all choose if you want to be CPUs, okay?"

"Huh?" Uni, Rom and even Chrome said at the same time.

"There's no point in making you be CPUs if you don't want to." Neptune told her. She had a pensive look on her face before she nodded. "I met a couple of people who became CPUs and didn't want to rule a nation. One of them lost her people, her nation and her powers. She lived for a long, long time before deciding that since her people rejected her and made her lose everything, she would destroy everything so that more CPUs couldn't be made and betrayed by their people."

"...What happened to her?" Chrome asked.

Neptune smiled at the memory. "Me, P-Ko, Nepgear, Plutie and our friends got together and beat her up." She really did need to check in on Rei in the future to see how she was doing. "There was another girl who became a CPU. She didn't know what she was doing and was all alone and made bad choices that caused her people to abandon her as well. But you know what?"

"What?" Rom asked, wondering who this second person was.

Neptune smiled at Rom. "Me, Plutie and my other friend, we went to her nation and helped her when she needed friends. Now she's a good CPU who looks after her people and she helped stop the other Goddess."

"Can I ask you something?" Uni asked Neptune, who looked at her and nodded. "...Did the people of your nation ever..." She trailed off as she tried to collect her thoughts. "Did they ever betray you?"

"More than once." Neptune answered and everyone suddenly jerked in shock, staring at her silently as Neptune just smiled at them. "Hmm... Let's see..." Neptune looked up and tapped her chin, "Well, there was the time people got tricked with free, pirated games and we lost our shares and me, my sister and the other CPUs of my world were captured for years by tentacles and were slowly dying before we got saved. Then there was the time that B-Sha took over my nation by accident."

"...How do you have your nation taken over by accident?" Uni asked, trying to comprehend what happened.

"Ah!" Neptune giggled at the memory. "Kurome erased everyone's memories of the CPUs and changed the world since shares were really weak. It's a good thing my friends and their sisters had a good amount of personal shares or they would have died I think."

"How can you not hate them?" Rom asked and Neptune looked at her. "They betrayed you, the people hurt you. They didn't care to help you when you needed it. One of them even stole your nation from you."

"Because," Neptune's face was completely serious as she spoke, "they don't mean it."

"But!" Rom and Uni both said at the same time.

Neptune closed her eyes and shook her head. "B-Sha never wanted my nation. When shares got really weak, all of the CPUs and our little sisters of our world put on a fighting tournament and during the final round, B-Sha and her friends showed up to challenge us. They had gotten some power similiar to ours and wanted to see how strong it was. Well," Neptune giggled and rubbed the back of her head, "they were really strong and kicked our butts good. Then Kurome decided that was the time to mess with Gamindustri and make everyone forget us. In the end, we got to fight against B-Sha and her friends again and none of them wanted our nations."

"But what about the piracy stuff?" Chrome asked, curious about that.

Neptune shook her head. "Nah! I don't blame them. If I was a human and someone offered me free pudding to believe in some other Goddess, then I'd do it."

"It's not the same for me." Uni said. "I can't trust them." She balled her hands into a fist. "It wasn't a mistake. They betrayed Noire and..."

"Not all of them." Neptune interrupted Uni, who gave her a confused expression. "There were people that I met who didn't like how things were and believed in your sister. Even if she was a Void, they believed in her to be a good CPU."

Chrome smiled at the floored expression on Uni's face. "Even if you can't trust most of the people in Lastation, you just need to find one person. So long as there's one person you can tolerate or even like, that's all you need."

"...Just one person?" Rom asked softly. "But..." She jerked as she felt hands on her shoulders and she looked to see Neptune's smiling face.

"When I was trapped in Plutie's world for twenty years I helped raise three little girls. Sure, I wanted to get home, but those three little girls always made me happy. Some days I thought to myself that if I couldn't ever get home again that it would be okay so long as I had my daughters."

Both Uni and Rom were silent and had troubled looks on their faces while Chrome and Neptune watched them silently.

"Big sis..." Rom spoke up after almost ten minutes and looked at Neptune, "...How?"

"Huh?" Neptune's confusion was obvious in her voice and on her face. "How what?"

"How can you smile after all of that?" Rom asked and Uni nodded.

"Because," Neptune just smiled at Rom, "it happened, it's over and things worked out fine."

"But..." Uni protested, trying to make sense of what Neptune was saying.

"Besides," Neptune continued as though Uni hadn't said anything, "if you focus on all the bad stuff, you'll be sad all the time. And life is hard enough. You need to focus on things that can make you smile." She winked at Rom. "It doesn't matter if what makes you smile is pudding, bad jokes or the people you love. If you focus on that instead of the sad stuff, then you can smile all the time."

"Oh." Both Uni and Rom said at the same time.

"You can be mad, sad or feel other emotions." Neptune continued, "it's okay. But you can't dwell on them, because that's why CPUs become bad." She thought to Blanc of Plutia's world, Rei and even Uzume and how their negative emotions had festered and nearly ruined them forever.

"So you two," Chrome spoke up as they looked at her, "if you're feeling overwhelmed by your negative emotions, it's okay to yell and scream. Or to cry if you need to. Talk to someone that you can confide in."

"Like we're doing now?" Uni asked, getting a nod from Chrome.

"Yes." Chrome told her. "The worst thing you can do," she sighed, "is become like me." Uni and Rom gave her a confused look and she continued. "After Iris Void took my nation and injured Filyn all those years ago, I bottled my emotions up. I cried when I was alone, but I never talked to anyone about it. I became bitter, cynical and aloof. Even seeing Compa, IF and how White Void was treating Rom and Ram, I couldn't bring myself to care or fight to stop her. I didn't have the power I used to, but I did nothing when I could have."

"Chrome..." Rom said softly and looked at her silently. "But..."

"If you hate the people of Lowee, Rom..." Chrome told her, "do you hate me? I was no different. And I'm a CPU as well."

"I..." Rom trembled and squeezed her hands into fists. "I..." She unclenched her hands and felt her shoulders slumping. "I... I don't know."

"If you can't hate someone who could have helped you." Chrome said softly, "how can you hate those who had no way of helping you?"

"I..." Rom hiccuped and trembled. "I..." She felt Neptune gently pull her into another hug, which she returned and cried again. "WHY AM I SO ANGRY THEN?!" She screamed into Neptune's chest.

"Because no one helped you for so long." Chrome told her. "I was angry for a long time as well. Angry for something I couldn't control."

Uni looked troubled as well. "I... Do I have anyone who.." Her eyes widened as she realized that there was someone she did care about. "...Steamax." She whispered to herself. "I..." She spoke up louder. "Even if I don't care about most of the people of Lastation, I... I'll become a good CPU." Neptune, Chrome and even Rom looked at her. "I want to make Noire proud of me, and I want..." A determined look came across her face as she squeezed her hands into fists. "I don't want what happened to Noire to happen to anyone else. I want Lastation to be a good place. Besides," she smiled as she thought she felt Noire's hand on her shoulder, giving her a comforting squeeze, "I promised Noire that I'd do my best. I can't let her down."

Neptune smiled at Uni as she rubbed Rom's back. 'They'll be okay. They need help like all of us, but they'll be okay.' Both of them had lots of room to grow, but she knew that in the end it would be worth it.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"Interesting..." MAGES. said as she sat in her room with her eyes closed. "So that's what was the problem, huh?" She knew she shouldn't have listened in on that entire conversation, but she was just so curious about the magic using CPU Candidates that she couldn't stop herself from looking in on them. But the information that she had gotten from that conversation was really interesting. "Other dimensions?" She sighed and shook her head. "I wonder if there's another version of me out there." Shrugging, she got off of her chair and walked over to her fridge and opened it up, pulling out a large can and opening it up. "Ah, Doc Tear Popper, such a good drink." She idly wondered why she liked it so much, but decided it wasn't important as she chugged it.

To be continued...

* * *

What? You thought Rom and Uni wouldn't have hang-ups over the stuff they suffered through?


	93. SNAFU

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 82

Slipping into the Basilicom had been easy for Steamax. Even without his incredible stealth abilities no one really paid attention to the front door. Seeing a muscled person with a dogoo for a head walking around and no one paying attention to it made Steamax wonder if he even needed to sneak into the Basilicom, but he shrugged it off as he listened to people talk. It took almost an hour, but eventually he learned where the CPU's room was. 'Really, I should have figured it out from the gaudy door and the stairs up to it.' Getting inside the door had been a little difficult as the door was closed tight and didn't open easily. However, as the door was not sealed with magic or some other seal, he was able to open the door and slip inside.

Looking around, he found his target on the large bed and silently pulled out a large dagger as he moved over to the bed. As he got closer, he confirmed that it was, in fact, someone who looked like the Neptune he knew. 'Eerily so.'

Still, he volunteered for this and he wouldn't let anyone down. 'The sooner she dies, the sooner this all ends.' After all, she was the last Void and if she was gone, then everything would end. Lifting his blade up, he plunged it down right at the Void's chest.

There was a clang as a glowing blade of dark energy blocked his strike. His eyes widened as Neptune opened her eyes.

"My my..." She chuckled, her voice deeper than he thought it would be. A crackle of energy filled the air and Steamax jumped back as Neptune was engulfed in dark energy. "It's been so long since someone tried to assassinate me."

"This whole mission's a failure." Steamax muttered.

"Aww..." The Void of Planeptune purred as the flash of energy stopped, revealing Purple Void in all her glory to Steamax. "And here I thought I was going to have fun."

Steamax gawked at her. "...That's not very practical. And I take it you're Purple Void?" The CPU, like Noire, had a hole in her chest above and between her breasts. Her breasts were covered by a bikini top that looked more like someone was using their hands to cover her nipples than an actual bikini top. Her crotch was covered by a bikini bottom that was rather small, her hands were covered by black gloves and her arms were covered by black sleeves with purple lines that left her shoulders and armpits bare and her feet had short black and purple boots on them while her legs were covered in skin-tight black leggings that went half-way up her thighs...

And the rest of her skin, from her upper and inner thighs, her abdomen, shoulders, the top, bottom and inner curvature of her boobs were all exposed.

Her eyes had blue irises with the same upside-down black power symbol on them and black sclera surrounding her irises. Her purple hair was long and in twin braids while having red and black stripes throughout it.

Purple Void chuckled at him. "Does it matter how much is covered? I could fight naked and no one would care." A shark-like grin came to her face. "Of course," her eyes seemed to glow in the dark as she stood up. "It doesn't matter how much you're wearing when all your enemies are dead at your feet."

Several dark glowing blades appeared in the room and Purple Void gave him a disturbing smile. "Die for your Goddess now."

(-)

When the walls to the CPU's room exploded outwards, everyone in the reception area of the Basilicom immediately jumped behind something and looked up as they saw their CPU, in her transformed state, holding a sword in each hand as her blades clashed against a mysterious blue ninja as they flew through the air.

"Impressive." Purple Void chuckled as the ninja used his dagger to block one of her blades and his large ninja star to block her other blade. "I would think that you'd be in pieces by now."

Steamax didn't say anything as he twisted out of the way of a slash and put his feet on Purple Void's stomach and used it to launch himself to the ground below. He looked up to see Purple Void grimacing while several black glowing blades formed around her. "Shit!"

"Die." Purple Void whispered as she launched all of the swords at Steamax at once.

(-)

Elsewhere...

Nepgear was smiling as Uni, Rom, Neptune and Chrome all came back to the table. While Uni and Rom both looked a little troubled and she could tell that Rom had been crying, they both looked like some mysterious weight had been lifted from their shoulders as they both looked relaxed. "Are you all..."

Neptune suddenly clutched her stomach and doubled over, falling to her knees as she let loose an ear-piercing scream of pain.

"Neptune!" Chrome was grabbing her as soon as she started to scream.

"Big sis!" Rom, Ram and Nepgear all yelled out. Nepgear blushed as she realized that this Neptune wasn't her big sister, but she couldn't help it.

Neptune's scream was getting so loud that it was getting painful to listen to. After a few more moments of that, her screaming tapered off as she panted while sweat rolled down her face. "S...She... Other me... She... Transformed!"

"You can tell?" Chrome asked, a horrified look on her face while Neptune nodded. "How?!"

"I don't know!" Neptune yelled at her. "It's not like I've met a lot of mes that can transform too!"

"Transform?" Nepgear had a confused tone of voice as she heard them talk about that. "But why would sis transform?" A look of dread came over her face as the implications started to run through her brain. "If she was sleeping, then... Did someone try to kill her?"

Neptune panted and grimaced. 'Why? Why am I able to feel her? What..?' Her eyes widened as she felt a painful throb from her chest. 'The Fearicite? Is it... Reacting to hers?' She looked at Chrome, a scared look on her face. "C...Chrome... I think the Fearicite I have is reacting."

"It never did that before..." Chrome muttered, wondering why it was happening now. "Will you be okay?"

Neptune nodded as she panted softly. "The pain's gone now. It was just so sudden that it hurt and I didn't expect it."

Chrome sighed and nodded, helping Neptune back to her feet. "I'm glad, but it looks like Steamax failed, huh?"

"Huh?" Both Uni and Nepgear said at the same time.

"What did Steamax do?" Uni asked, worried about the ninja robot. Both Neptune and Chrome looked a bit uncomfortable and she frowned at them. "Come on! What did he..?"

"He tried to kill my sister, didn't he?" Nepgear asked softly as realization dawned on her. When neither Neptune nor Chrome denied it, she had a look of betrayal and anger on her face. "WHY?! Why would you..?"

"The point of traveling to each nation," Chrome interrupted her, "was to kill each Void and rescue the CPU Candidate from being tortured by the CPU."

"But I'm not being tortured by my sister!" Nepgear protested.

"Aren't you?" Uni snapped at her. "She has you walk around and pretend to be a dog, beg for treats and people at the Basilicom see it as normal for her to take off and not know where you are."

"And what do you know about her?!" Nepgear snapped back at Uni, who jerked in surprise. "Yes, she does bad things sometimes and she's random, but she always treated me good!"

"If being forced to do things that are humiliating is treating you good, then I'd rather have Noire alive and being distant to me again." Uni snapped back at Nepgear as the two glared at each other while sparks started to crackle in the air.

Neptune gawked at what she was seeing. 'Nep Jr. and Uni never fought like this in our world.' Then again, the two had become friends when Nepgear was trying to free all of the CPUs from the graveyard and had become close over the combined grief of having their sisters captured, the stress of running a nation and working to try and save everyone where these two versions didn't have that same bonding experience.

The two argued for over a minute more before Nepgear turned to leave. "Whatever! I'm going to my sister and hope that she can be calmed down before..."

"I'm not done yet!" Uni yelled and grabbed Nepgear's arm.

The maid spun and had a look that was downright murderous on her face as she wrenched her arm free of Uni's grip. "Don't you dare touch me!" She yelled and swung her right hand at Uni's face.

There was a loud slap and stunned silence in the building.

Even Nepgear stared in shock, her anger quickly disappearing.

Not because she slapped Uni, she would have stormed off if she had.

But because the person on the other end of that slap was her sister's look-a-like.

Neptune's head was jerked to the side and she slowly turned to look at Nepgear, a sad look on her face. "...How long have you been wanting to do that, Nepgear?"

"I..." Nepgear trembled and stepped back. "Neptune, I..."

"Go ahead..." Neptune gave her a sad smile. "I deserve it. I wasn't a good big sister to you and you should have hit me a long time ago." Her voice was soft and meek.

"N...No... I..." Suddenly Nepgear burst into tears as she turned and ran out of the guild.

Neptune lowered her head as she slid to her knees. "I'm sorry, Nepgear, I'm so sorry. After everything I've done to you, this is the least I deserve."

"What do you mean by that?!" Uni suddenly yelled as she grabbed Neptune and shook her, causing Neptune to blink several times. "What you deserve?! What the hell are you talking about?"

"I..." Neptune had an utterly horrified look on her face. "I..."

"Uni," Chrome spoke up, "calm down."

"No!" Uni protested and glared at Neptune. "You're harping on and on about being a good CPU to me and Rom and yet you act like Rom, Ram or I do when we're at our worst moments! What the hell is wrong with you? What did you do to her? To Nepgear? What did you do to her that makes you like this?"

"...I almost killed her." Neptune answered Uni, an absolutely miserable expression on her face. "I choked her, squeezing her throat and laughed about it." Her eyes screwed shut. "I... I enjoyed it."

"What?" Uni and Rom both gasped in shock as they looked at the utterly defeated form of Neptune.

"I... There were so many times that I got upset with Nepgear." Neptune wasn't even looking at them as she couldn't stand the thought of seeing their expressions of disgust with her. "The people love her, some people even said that they couldn't wait for me to step down so Nepgear could be the CPU. She took over my nation for awhile. She trapped me in Plutie's world for over a decade."

"Neptune..." Chrome whispered, knowing that admitting this had to be hard on her. "You don't..."

"I pushed it all down, buried it, because I knew I still loved her." Neptune laughed suddenly. It was a bitter, cold laugh, one that felt like it shouldn't have come out of her mouth. "I don't know anymore. When Kurome nearly destroyed Gamindustri, she captured me and the other CPUs and made them feel like they hated their sisters and friends, but..."

"She brought your negative feelings forward, huh?" Chrome asked, getting a nod from Neptune. "So how did you stop?"

"Another me smacked me and helped my sister free me and the others from Kurome..."

"But that wasn't you!" Rom protested and Neptune looked up to see Rom standing right in front of her, looking at her sadly. "You just said that Kurome made you feel that way and..."

Neptune shook her head. "No... My feelings were real... I... I can't ever forgive myself for it and..."

There was a loud smacking sound and everyone who was there gasped and stared as Neptune found herself on her back, her other cheek throbbing in pain, though much less pain than when Nepgear had slapped her.

"NO!" Rom yelled, her hand held up high as she glared at Neptune. "STOP IT!"

"But..."

"YOU'RE WRONG!" Rom yelled again, interrupting Neptune. "You're an awesome big sis! Didn't you just tell me that it's okay to feel bad feelings sometimes?!"

"Yeah." Uni nodded, giving Neptune an upset look. "Or was that all talk and bluster?"

"But..." Neptune tried to protest, but was stopped when someone else interrupted her.

"Sometimes," Chrome began as she walked over to Neptune, "those of us who are older are hypocrites," she reached out her hand to help Neptune stand up, "and we don't want those who come after us to face the same problems we did." When Neptune was standing up, Chrome looked at Rom and Uni, "but you are right, Neptune probably needed you two to talk some sense into her." She smiled at them and then looked at Neptune while fighting the urge to laugh at Neptune's red cheeks. "Still, thank you both."

"HEY!" The four looked to the door as Filyn, Peashy and Ram all ran into the building, all looking scared by something. "You need to come out here, Chromey!"

"Huh?" Chrome, Neptune, Rom and Uni all had confused looks on their faces.

(-)

The group got outside only to see large projections of Purple Void facing all of them.

"Huh..." Neptune tilted her head, "my evil HDD self is really sexy, huh?" She laughed at the looks the others gave her. "Can't I appreciate how sexy I look?"

"I give up trying to figure out how you think." Chrome sighed in exasperation and focused on Purple Void.

"Greetings, people of Planeptune." Purple Void said in a rather pleasant tone of voice. "It's been awhile since I addressed all of you. Do not worry, none of you are in trouble. Well, those of you who are from Planeptune."

The air itself seemed to become tense as Purple Void's voice became more sinister and even Chrome felt her knees trembling slightly.

"It seems that some people from outside of Planeptune made it to our great nation." Purple Void smiled and was silent, no doubt allowing people to process this information. "One of them even attempted to assassinate me today. And I was going to take a nap too."

"Steamax..." Uni muttered, hoping he was okay before gasping as Purple Void held up a familiar-looking metal throwing star, only it was in two pieces.

"I admit, as a ninja, my would-be assassin did put up a great fight, but," Purple Void sneered, "in the end, it didn't even matter."

"No..." Uni fell to her knees, her eyes watering up.

"Now then," Purple Void continued and tossed the broken ninja star to the side, "I know that you invaders are listening and watching this. So listen up and listen well. In three hours, my knights and I will be in the central square waiting for you. If you don't show, well..." Purple Void smiled and shrugged. "I can't be held responsible for what may or may not happen to the people of Planeptune." Smiling sweetly, she waved at the onlookers. "So, until then... OH!" Her eyes widened as she remembered something. "And Histoire," she sneered, "I know you're listening in. When I find you, I'm going to make sure that you won't be able to listen or move ever again."

A bright, sunny smile came across Purple Void's face as she closed her eyes. "That's all. Ta ta for now."

The image shut off and everyone looked at each other in worry.

"It's time, huh?" Neptune said softly.

She didn't know what was going to happen, but she did know that it wouldn't be easy.

To be continued...

* * *

This is a total SNAFU. Nothing ever goes as planned, does it?


	94. Face to Face

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 83

"You really aren't our CPU, are you?" A voice had Neptune turning to see the familiar-looking blue-haired waitress, who was standing in the doorway with the other people of the guild, all of whom were looking at Neptune curiously.

"No, I'm not." Neptune shook her head. "My name is Neptune, CPU of Planeptune from another dimension." She jerked in surprise as Histoire floated out above the group and to Neptune. "Um, Histy, how are you..?"

"I can still hear, Neptune." Histoire smiled at her. "And I have ways of sensing the world beyond just seeing things. I admit it took me a long time to get this good."

"But then you heard..." Neptune trailed off as Histoire nodded. "Then you should hide!"

Histoire shook her head. "I'm tired of hiding."

"Uh..." Neptune had a confused look on her face as she had her eyes mostly closed. "I don't think being locked in a bird cage counts as hiding when you're as mangled as you are."

Histoire let out a soft sigh. "In the end, Neptune," she gave Neptune as stern of a look as she was able to with her eyes being removed, "it doesn't matter if I'm there or not. If you fail and I am not there, then Purple Void will do whatever she can to hunt me down and deal with me that way." She gave Neptune a soft smile. "If I'm with you, at least I can spare others in Planeptune some suffering."

The next thing Histoire knew, Neptune was hugging her. "Histy..." Neptune whispered softly. "Will you stay safe?"

"I will be there to observe as best as I can." Histoire said as she gently hugged Neptune back. "Can I ask you something, Neptune?" Neptune nodded and released the hug to take a step back. "From our earlier conversation, you made it sound like there was a Histoire in your world."

Neptune nodded. "Uh huh. My Histy's someone I really treasure."

Histoire smiled at that. "You called her your mother. I know that I'm not her but... I can tell you, without a shred of doubt, that if I was her, that I would be so proud of you."

Neptune stared at her in shock. "...H-Histy?"

"You've suffered so much for the people of Gamworld," Histoire explained to her, "dealing with horrors of this world that no one should have to deal with. And you aren't even from this dimension. You have no obligation nor reason to help us, yet you have. You saved the CPU Candidates of Lowee, Leanbox, Lastation and brought them all to Planeptune with you."

Neptune found her cheeks turning pink and she chuckled, rubbing the back of her head. "Well, you're mostly right, Histy. Even if it's not my world, even if none of you are my people, I'd still try to help the CPU Candidates and the people of this world."

Histoire and the humans behind her all looked at Neptune in confusion. "What do you mean?" Histoire asked her. "There was no reason for you to help us, and I'm so grateful that you agreed to my selfish request."

"You're wrong, Histy." Neptune shook her head. "I didn't do it because you asked me to. I did it because people were suffering." She turned her head to look at Rom and Ram, who smiled at her, "because people needed help," Neptune turned to look at Peashy, who had a confused look on her face, "because there were people who cried out for help." She looked at Uni, who merely smirked at her. "And because, no matter what," Neptune turned back to Histoire and spread her arms out, "it's the right thing to do."

Histoire could only stare in a manner approaching awe, as could the other humans who looked at Neptune. "You..."

Neptune smiled at Histoire. "Even if I wasn't a CPU. Even if I couldn't transform. Even if I was level locked at one, I'd still try to help. My best friends were once my enemies. But I made them my friends, because I wanted to help them and end our fight."

"You..." The familiar-looking staff member spoke up. "What's your CPU name?"

"Purple Heart." Neptune answered her. "...And I need to know, who are you? You look so familiar to me!"

"Ah!" The girl smiled at her. "My name's NISA."

"Holy freeholas!" Neptune yelled, her eyes wide. "Now I remember! You're that Hero of Justice who helped my sister out a few years ago!"

"Hero of Justice?" NISA tilted her head before smiling wistfully, "yeah, I wanted to be one of those when I was younger."

"Well..." Neptune chuckled. "I guess I'll..."

"Go with the rest of us." Chrome interrupted and Neptune turned around to see Chrome standing there with an expectant look on her face. "One, I'm not letting you out of my sight if I can help it. Two, you heard Purple Void, she and her knights will be waiting for us. Do you really think you can handle more than one opponent in your current condition?" Chrome sighed softly and walked up to Neptune and hugged her. "And finally, I want to see this through to the end."

Neptune found herself blushing as her face was buried in Chrome's chest, but she hugged the other CPU back. "Thanks." She muttered softly. Chrome nodded and let go of the hug and Neptune looked at the CPU Candidates. "...I... You can go now, I won't..."

"Just stop." Uni shook her head. "We're going with you."

"That's right." Filyn told her while Rom, Ram and Peashy all nodded. "Don't even think about leaving us behind."

"But..." Neptune tried to protest only to sigh at the looks she was given. "...I feel like this is when Nep Jr. convinced me to take her with when we went to the Graveyard." That had turned out horrible and Neptune wondered if maybe she should have made her sister stay behind that time if it would have made a difference.

Still, she knew that it would be hard with just the evil version of herself and if it was a boss rush before the final fight, then it would be nearly impossible, even with Chrome's help.

Neptune sighed and nodded. "Okay, you can come with, but..."

"We know." Shockingly, it was Peashy who spoke up. "We know we could die, Neptuna." There was a look in her eyes that reminded Neptune of her daughter. "But Pea won't let you fight alone!"

"And we have unfinished business with MAGES.," Rom said, getting a nod from Ram.

"Uh huh. We'll show her we're not weak anymore."

Filyn just smiled and pulled out a spear. "Chromey, if you think..."

"You're welcome to come with." Chrome interrupted her and looked at Uni. "I assume you're going to avenge Steamax?"

"Of course." Uni nodded and clenched her hand into a fist. "I'll avenge him and then find where he is so I can fix him later."

"I wish there was something we could do." NISA said, looking somewhat depressed that she couldn't help in the slightest.

"There is," Chrome told her and pointed at Neptune. "Believe in her. Believe in Purple Heart. Doing so will help her get the strength needed to fight against Purple Void."

"Everyone." Histoire spoke up softly. "Let's go. Maybe we can get there early enough to set a trap or something?"

They nodded and Neptune grabbed Histoire and the group took off to the goodbyes of everyone at the guild.

"...Good luck." NISA said softly.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Purple Void closed her eyes as the transmission ended and was about to release her transformation when the doors to the room opened up and Nepgear ran in, looking worried.

"Big sis!" Nepgear ran forward to Purple Void. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" She stopped in front of Purple Void, got on her knees and bowed her head to the floor. "I met some people that were invading our country and I thought they were good people and..."

"Nepgear," Purple Void interrupted her, "enough, you had no clue that they were here to kill me and you're okay, correct?" Nepgear nodded while keeping her forehead pressed against the floor. "That's good," Purple Void let loose a sigh and reverted to her human form, "because I'd hate to have that pretty body of yours marred by someone." Neptune giggled and Nepgear took that as her cue to raise her head up slowly. When her head was up high enough, Neptune grabbed Nepgear's chin and stared at her for several moments. "You really are a sexy girl, Nepgear." She said softly. "When this is over, I'll have to give you some special attention."

Nepgear found herself blushing as Neptune let go of her chin and allowed her to stand up. "Um... Do you mean what I think you mean?"

"Of course," Neptune smiled at Nepgear. "I need to give you some loving once in awhile as well, Nepgear."

Nepgear blushed and Neptune turned away, a contemplative look on her face. 'I wonder if she'll survive the day today,' she thought to herself as she thought about Nepgear. 'Oh well, I guess I'll find out, won't I?'

There was a rapid pattering of feet that had both Neptune and Nepgear turning to the door as Mina ran into the room, panting. "M-Mistress..." Mina gasped as she put her hands on her legs. "I came running as soon as I saw the transmission, are you unharmed?!"

"Ah!" Neptune smiled and walked towards Mina. "Mina, such a good girl. Come here." She stopped as Mina rushed to her and she gave Mina a tug on her clothes and pulled her down to pat her on the head. "I'd give you more of a reward, but..." She trailed off as RED and B-Sha both ran into the room.

"AWWW!" Both of them yelled at the same time, looking disappointed. "I wanted a reward too!"

"You know the rules, girls." Neptune told them, "first to arrive is the first to get a reward."

"But that's not fair." B-Sha pouted. "I came as fast as I could too!"

"Tough." Neptune shrugged. She really did enjoy these three, they usually were lots of fun, but their squabbling and competition between each other to get her attention annoyed her tremendously. "I have a job for you three."

"Huh?"

Neptune looked at Nepgear and then to the trio. "I'm worried that, since there's so many invaders, that they might have some people sneak in while I'm busy. So I want you three to stay here and protect Nepgear for me."

"Neptune," Nepgear smiled at her sister, "thank you." She knew that Neptune did things she didn't like, but it was moments like this that proved her sister loved her.

"OH!" Neptune snapped her fingers and a necklace with a lion face pendant appeared in her hands. "Could you wear this for me, Nepgear?"

Nodding, Nepgear took the pendant and put it on. "What's this for?" It was pretty, but Nepgear knew there had to be something more to it than just looking pretty.

Neptune just smiled at her. "That's easy, silly! This pendant will let me know where you're at at all times, just in case the fight gets out of control, I don't want to launch an attack that would hit you."

Nepgear smiled when she heard that. 'See?' She thought to herself, 'I knew she cared.' There wasn't any doubt in her mind anymore. 'After all, why would she give me something like this if she didn't care?'

Neptune smirked softly and looked at the door. "Now where is MAGES. and Cave?"

"Um..." B-Sha raised her hand. "I saw them as I was rushing over here. They seemed to be heading to get your other knights."

"Oh, good." Neptune smiled, "that means..."

"GET BACK HERE, YOU BITCH!" Judge screamed as MAGES. ran into the room, followed by a large, angry, black robot with a halberd weapon. "I'LL TURN YOUR BONES INTO DUST!"

There was a loud clang as Judge slammed into a large sword that appeared out of nowhere. Thankfully for Judge, it was the flat of the blade instead of the sharp edge that he slammed into.

"No fighting." Neptune told Judge and then looked at MAGES., "what did you do to him?"

"I didn't do any damage to him if that's what you're wondering." MAGES. had an impish smile on her face. "Though I maaaay have tied him up and forgot to undo the spell and now he's a wee bit mad at me." She giggled while holding her hands behind her back and tugging on her long braid.

"...I see..." Neptune turned to look at Judge as she dissipated the blade. "Are you okay?"

"GRR!" Judge growled as he got up. "I'll be fine!"

Neptune nodded. "Good, then I'll ignore you." She ignored his cry of outrage as a loud thumping sound was heard. A few moments later, Cave walked in, followed by her final Knight. "Ah! Trick! It's time to get to work."

"So long as I can get little cuties, I don't care." Trick giggled and licked his lips while his tongue drooled. "Ooooh! Some new cuties I can play with! I can't wait to taste them and make them experience the joys of adult fun!"

The others, even Judge, all looked visibly disturbed by the thought of Trick playing with anyone.

"And then you'll eat them." Neptune said, the only one in the room who wasn't visibly disturbed by his announcement.

"When I'm done tasting their sweet, sweet nectar and other body fluids and having some fun with them, perhaps." Trick giggled as his tongue rolled out of his mouth and he started to pant and bounce around.

Neptune just shook her head. 'Oh well, that's what I get for having a fat, yellow, pedophile robot working for me.' It was easy enough to ignore. After all, she ignored all the kids that went missing all the time since she knew who was taking them. "I don't care if you kill them by making them orgasm so much that they die in climax, lick the flesh from their skin or eat them, just deal with them."

"YAY!" Trick cried out in glee and bounced around. "Oooooh! I'm going to have fun with some cuties!"

"Um, sis..." Nepgear had a disturbed look on her face, as did the others, "was that really needed?"

Neptune gave her a serious look. "Pray you never become the CPU and have to find out, Nepgear." Turning, she walked out of the room. "Enough! Knights, with me." She stopped and pointed to Cave. "That includes you too!"

Cave sighed softly. "This is going to end poorly, isn't it?" Still, she couldn't go against the CPU. 'After all,' she thought to herself as she followed after Neptune and glanced back at the three with Nepgear, 'we all pledged our loyalty to the CPU of Planeptune, to Neptune.'

Taking one last look at Nepgear, Cave quickly moved to go after Neptune and the Knights as they left the room.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"So this is the central square, huh?" Chrome asked as she looked around. It was, true to its name, a large square area with grass, trees and small streams. "It looks like a large park."

"No swings, slides or anything fun!" Neptune protested, getting nods from Rom, Ram and Peashy. "Not much of a park!"

"You like playing with kids in the park, huh?" Chrome asked with an amused look on her face. "Nothing wrong with that, but I'm surprised that you take the time to do that."

"What?" Neptune had a confused look on her face. "I enjoy playing with the kids and knowing how their day went. I like helping old people cross the street and I like just making everyone smile."

Chrome said nothing, but the gentle smile on her face was quite telling.

"Nep Nep!" A familiar voice yelled out and Neptune turned to see Compa, Warechu, Gust, IF and Linda running her way. "We came as soon as we heard the announcement."

"The security guys didn't want us to come." Linda groused in annoyance. "When I mentioned your name they all had no problem letting us through."

"I wonder why." IF muttered and looked at everyone. "So this is the final showdown?"

"Yeah," Neptune nodded. "Histy," she looked at the book fairy, who was standing still. "Histy, what are..?"

"Look!" Rom pointed in a direction and everyone turned to see a group heading their way.

"I don't believe it..." Linda muttered. "It's like I'm seeing double."

The other Neptune just grinned as she was surrounded by Judge, Trick, MAGES. and Cave. "Well, now it makes sense..." She laughed suddenly. "The only one who could kill the other CPUs of Gamworld..." Her eyes seemingly glowed as her grin increased in size. "Would have to be me."

Neptune looked at the other version of her and fought the urge to gulp in fear. It was time to face herself and end everything.

To be continued...

* * *

What? You thought we'd be fighting right now? No, this is the "everyone's gathered, let's gear up, look bad-ass, and slow walk to the final battle" scene in the movies.


	95. Showdown

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Yes, I have to throw the references in this chapter that I made. Been wanting to do them for awhile now.

* * *

Chapter 84

"Wait," Neptune said as she looked at her Void self and the ones with her. "Where's Nepgear?"

"Probably in the Basilicom." Chrome said and looked at Compa. "Could you, Warechu, IF, Linda and Gust go to the Basilicom and look for a girl named Nepgear? She's the CPU Candidate of Planeptune. We need to make sure that she's okay."

"Plus it gets us out of the way of the upcoming fight." Gust smirked and Chrome nodded. "That's fine, Gust has no desire to run up walls again."

"And I'd rather not get burned to dust, Chu..." Warechu muttered before seeing the look of shame on Ram's face. "AH!" He ran over to Ram and got in front of her. "It's not your fault, I promise!" Ram gave him a hopeful look and Warechu smiled at her. "You aren't at fault, Ram, okay?" With a flap of his wings, he floated up and patted her on the head.

Ram blushed while smiling and giggling as he rubbed her head. "Thank you."

"OOOOOH!" Everyone turned to see the fat, yellow robot with a long tongue speak up. "There are five cuties over there! Can I have them all?!" Nearly everyone looked at him, including the black robot, in disgust. "The two cuties that look like sisters, the little blonde cutie, the one with the eye-patch and the bunny cutie!"

Gust gave him a flat, annoyed look. "Gust is forty-one years old."

"WHAT?!" The robot yelled, his eyes red. "HOW DARE YOU TRICK ME?!" He screamed and started bouncing around while screaming about how it wasn't right for an old hag to look so young. "I'LL KILL YOU!"

"Trick..." The Neptune that was near him spoke up suddenly and the robot stopped and looked at her. "Calm down or I won't let you have any more cuties."

"I'm sorry!" Trick yelled out meekly. How he managed to both yell and sound meek was a mystery to everyone, but somehow he managed to do it.

"Get going!" Chrome yelled at Compa and the others, who all nodded and ran off.

"HEY!" Judge yelled as he saw some of the group running off. "GET BACK HERE!" He was about to take off when Neptune told him to stop. "BUT!"

"It's fine." Neptune smirked as she watched the group run off. "Even if they get into the Basilicom, RED, B-Sha and Mina will keep them away from Nepgear." Her shoulders shook. "And if they fail..." She shook her head. "Well, I guess I'll be looking for new bed warmers." She looked at her counterpart and smirked. "And they better pray that they're dead if they failed me, because if they're alive..."

MAGES. clapped her hands and smiled nervously. "Lady Neptune, maybe it's time we get our opponents?" Neptune nodded and MAGES. pointed to Rom and then at Ram. "Those two little ones with the brown hair."

"BUT I WANT THEM!" Trick yelled in anger.

"Sorry, Tricky-poo," MAGES. giggled at him, "but I got dibs. Besides, you still have the other two little ones."

"Hmm..." Trick looked at Peashy and Filyn and nodded. "Oooooh! I can't wait to have fun with them."

Chrome snarled at him. "If you think I'll let you..." Whatever more she was going to say was cut off as MAGES.'s hands glowed and Rom, Ram, Peashy, Filyn and Trick all disappeared. "What?!"

"Teleportation magic." MAGES. winked while her hands continued to glow. "Sorry, but can't have you interrupting what's going to happen."

"Indeed," Neptune smirked. "Obviously I'm taking on... Well, myself I guess. Hmm... Two left and Judge and Cave... Cave, you choose."

"WHY DO I GOTTA GO LAST?!" Judge screamed in frustration.

"Because you'd choose all of them, get destroyed and then we'd all laugh at you." MAGES. giggled at him. "But relax, I'll choose who fights who." She looked at Neptune, "if that's okay with you."

"Fine." Neptune nodded and there was a bright flash and everyone but the two Neptunes and Histoire were gone. "I guess it's time to end the other me." She smirked at Histoire. "And then I'll come for you."

"Even if you did win," Histoire said, "I doubt that you'll be able to leave under your own power."

"You're wrong about one thing, Eviltune!" Neptune shot back at her other self. "I'll end you!"

"Eviltune?" Neptune blinked a few times before nodding and smirking. "I like it! Anyway! Access!" A black pillar of energy engulfed her while the other Neptune clutched her chest to try and deal with the pain she was feeling. "Purple Void has arrived." In each of her hands was a short sword.

Neptune panted and glared at Purple Void. "I'll end this so that I can stop you from hurting anyone else!" She was about to transform when an idea hit her. "...There's something I want to do."

"What?" Purple Void asked, confused.

"I have a feeling it's something silly." Histoire sighed. "Please don't."

"Imma gunna do it!" Neptune nodded and pulled out a katana and pointed it to the sky. "By the Power of Grayskull!" She was engulfed in a white pillar of energy that had black lightning crackling around it. "I am Purple Heart!" The transformed CPU called out as she gripped her two-handed katana with both hands.

"...Seriously?" Purple Void blinked a few times as she looked over Purple Heart. The other CPU's full-figure body suit was quite flattering, though as Purple Void looked closer, she noticed that Purple Heart's Sclera in her left eyes was completely black and her eye was red, though the power symbols in both eyes were white and upside down compared to a Void's pupils, that is to say, they were normal for a Heart. "...Why didn't I ever think of that?! I want a do-over!"

"No." Both Histoire and Purple Heart said at the same time.

"Boo!" Purple Void pouted before sighing. "Very well." She smirked as several drones flew into the air around them. "In case you're wondering," she chuckled, "this whole fight will be broadcast across Planeptune."

"I see." Purple Heart nodded, "to fully drive home the terror of what you can to the people no doubt." Purple Void just grinned at her. "Well then, I have no choice, it seems. Here I come, Evil Me. Do you have enough Fear?"

"Foolish Heart! Don't get cocky!" Purple Void snapped back as she held her swords in front of her before the two rushed each other.

(-)

Elsewhere...

"Huh?" Uni looked around. From what she could see, she was in some sort of open court yard. "Where..?"

"Well, well, well..." A male voice spoke up and Uni turned to see Judge not far away from her. "About time I get to play with SOMEONE without anyone interrupting." He chuckled as Uni pulled out a pair of Uzis. "Really? You're going to use those? Pathetic." A pole arm appeared in his hands and he held it above his head with his right hand while he held his left hand out at Uni and curved his fingers. "Bring it, you black-haired slut! I'll break your body into so many pieces that you'll be begging me to kill you when I'm done!" The blade of his halberd shifted and Uni saw it become a scythe. "I am Judge! The Grim Reaper of Planeptune!" His eyes glowed a bright red. "And I deem you guilty! PREPARE TO DIE!"

(-)

In another location...

Chrome frowned as she looked around. "On top of the buildings?"

"Yes." Cave nodded as she pulled out an over-sized pair of scissors. "I apologize, but I can't go against my CPU. Please understand."

Chrome sighed as wires formed around her fingers. "I can, actually. Being loyal is a good thing in this world. But, I, too, have someone I have to help, and she's fighting your CPU."

"You really care for your Neptune, huh?" Cave asked and smiled sadly as Chrome nodded. "I see. She's lucky to have someone like you as her lover."

Chrome felt her cheeks turning pink at that accusation and she shook her head. "My feelings for Neptune aren't important." She narrowed her eyes at Cave. "But I guarantee you that I will leave here and get back to her."

"We'll see." Cave answered her.

The two looked at each other in both sadness and understanding. Both because they understood each other and because they had to fight each other.

As Chrome's wires began to move, Cave readied her scissor-sword and held it in front of her in a defensive position.

(-)

Yet another location...

"This is..?" Ram looked around, noticing the location.

"Where we first met that crazy magic girl?" Rom asked.

A flash of light caught their attention as MAGES. walked through a portal. "That's right." MAGES. answered her and spread her arms apart slowly. "Well, no, it's not right." MAGES. corrected herself a moment later. "This is where we fought. We met at the food court, remember?"

"...Oh yeah!" Both of the twins nodded at the same time.

MAGES. smiled at them. "Do understand that I really don't want to do this, I think you two have a bright future ahead of you... Well, had a bright future."

"Then why are you helping that other Neptune?" Rom asked as MAGES. sighed heavily.

"I swore an oath to serve the CPU of Planeptune." MAGES. told them as her hair started to get wavy, her hands and eyes both started to glow as she floated backwards. "You can understand loyalty, can you not?"

Rom and Ram looked at her, then at each other, then back at MAGES. and both of them nodded. "Yes." Ram nodded to her. "For our big sis Neptune, I'd do anything she asked of me."

"Because she saved us." Rom continued as memories of all the things Neptune had done for them. "Because even when we were tricked into trying to hurt her, she forgave us..." Lightning crackled around her hands. "And for that, for all she's done for us, I won't let her down!" An aura of power surrounded Rom, turning into a circle as lightning surrounded her on all sides.

"Rom's right." Ram nodded as her hands erupted into flames. "I love big sis, I love Rom! I won't let anyone take them from me!" An eruption of magic surrounded Ram and her eyes glowed red while Rom's eyes were glowing white.

MAGES. smiled at them. "If we didn't have to fight, I'd give you two hugs right now." She said, her voice soft so they couldn't hear her, "because I'm so proud you two have overcome your mental blocks."

Still, orders were orders...

That didn't mean she had to like them.

(-)

"Where are we?" Filyn asked as she looked around. In front of her was a river surrounded on both sides by rocks and a sloping hill.

"Not sure, but Pea wants to run up the hill and roll down it." Peashy giggled at the thought of doing that. "Right into the river!"

"Uh..." Filyn took a step back as the water seemed to lift itself up into a dome before the large, fat robot erupted out of it. "Ewww! It's that pervert!"

"Pervert, huh?" Trick chuckled at Filyn. "Don't worry, this so-called pervert is going to show you two cuties a good time." He started to actually drool and slobber as he said that.

"...Pea doesn't like him. Can I go smashy smashy on him?" Peashy asked, getting a nod from Filyn. "YAY!" She ran at Trick. "PEA PUUUNOOOOOMPH!" Peashy's eyes bugged out of their head as Trick lashed his tongue out at her and hit her in the stomach, sending her flying back into the dirt.

"Peashy!" Filyn gasped and ran to the blonde, who groaned and sat up. "Are you okay?" Peashy nodded as she was helped to her feet.

"Ah ah ah!" Trick waggled his finger at Peashy. "No smashy smashy, just let Trick play with you." His tongue went over his mouth rapidly as his eyes seemingly glowed. "I'll make sure that the last thing you ever experience is the ecstasy of adult pleasure before ending your lives."

Both Peashy and Filyn gave him a disturbed look as he chuckled. "I'm going to have so much fun with you two!"

To be continued...

* * *

You thought they were all going to fight in the same area?


	96. Judgement

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

So this is not the original chapter that I posted. I will explain.

What I originally posted was something that, for all intents and purposes, wasn't something I actually enjoyed. I wrote that chapter less out of enjoyment and more out of obligation than anything else.

In the end, between the outrage I got over the chapter and my own personal dislike of said chapter, I have decided to scrub the chapter entirely.

HOWEVER! For those of you who wish to see what it was originally, I will share it with you if you ask and via PM only.

But for those who don't want to know the details but want to know what it was about...

Trick was doing Trick things.

* * *

Chapter 85

Pulling the trigger on her Uzis, Uni jumped backwards but saw that the bullets were bouncing off of Judge with no real effect.

"Is that all?!" The large, black robot, yelled and rushed at Uni, using thrusters on his feet, as he held his weapon to the side. Uni jumped away as he swung his scythe in a wide arc, destroying a good chunk of the ground and sending wind, debris and pressure at Uni, who let out a cry of pain as she was caught up in the attack. "Even if you avoid my attacks, you'll still feel pain!"

Groaning as she stood up, shallow cuts on her body, Uni snarled at Judge. "Good to know!" She made her Uzis disappear and an energy rifle formed in her hands. "Take this!" She pulled the trigger and fired a beam of energy at Judge, who merely held up his hand and Uni could only stare in shock as the attack was stopped cold.

"Pathetic." Judge scoffed. "My body's nearly indestructible. You've got nothing that can stop me!" Raising his right arm up, he dropped it down, along with his halberd, sending out a wave of energy at Uni. "DIE!"

Letting out a cry of pain, Uni barely managed to avoid the direct attack, though the air pressure from the attack sent her flying off of her feet and landing on her back hard. Grimacing through the pain, Uni rolled a couple of times before flipping over to her feet and sliding back. Looking up, her face and arms scuffed and lightly bleeding from her impromptu tumble, she glared at Judge and snapped her fingers as a four barrel rocket launcher appeared in her hands. "I don't like this weapon, but..." She dropped to a knee while slinging the rocket launcher over her shoulder and took aim at Judge. "FIRE!" She pulled the trigger, launching the rockets all at Judge at the same time as they flew and spread out slightly before converging on Judge, exploding and causing him to cry out in surprised pain.

Uni screwed her right eye shut and looked away as Judge was engulfed in a dome of fire and noise. "That's why I don't like using this weapon." She jumped away from a random piece of shrapnel that came flying out of the dome. "Too much damage."

Suddenly a shadow burst from the flames and Uni gasped as she saw Judge, who, despite his armor being singed, was completely unharmed. His scythe was glowing before he swung it, sending an arc of energy that traveled across the ground and was too large to jump over it. All Uni could do was cross her arms and brace herself. As the vibrating wave of power washed over her, she let out a scream of pain as she was knocked off her feet and onto her back.

After the attack ended, Uni was laying on her side, her arms cut up and bleeding from blocking the attack, as were her legs and stomach, which was easy to see as Judge's attack had destroyed most of Uni's clothes, leaving just a bit covering her chest, hips and feet.

"Is that it?" Judge scoffed as he saw Uni laying on her side, bleeding and struggling to move. "Whatever," he slowly made his way over to her. "I think I'll have some fun with you."

As Judge made his way over to her, Uni flopped onto her stomach and tried to push herself up. 'Come on, Uni! Move! MOVE!' She yelled at herself as she tried to get her arms to push her up without much success. "He's going to kill you." She muttered to herself as tears came out of her eyes. "You'll die like a dog. Is this how you want to die? Do you want to..." Uni could feel herself sinking into despair. "Is this how you want to go out?"

When a shadow loomed over her, Uni turned her head to see Judge standing there, his weapon held up high above his head. "Time to die." His voice was surprisingly somber. "I hate it when my toys break so easily, but whatever."

He dropped his weapon down and Uni cringed as she waited for the pain to happen.

There was a clanging sound that rang out in the silent courtyard.

"WHAT?!" Judge screamed in shock as his halberd was stopped cold.

"H...Huh?" Uni's eyes widened as she realized that one, she wasn't dead and two, someone was protecting her. She rolled onto her side and could only stare in shock, disbelief and more than a few emotions she couldn't figure out as her skin got goosebumps all over it. "...No way..."

"Lady Uni," Steamax said as he stood there, a sword in his hands as he pushed against the halberd. "I apologize for not getting back to you sooner."

"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!?" Judge screamed as his weapon was pushed away just long enough for the blue robot to turn, grab Uni and get away from Judge.

"My name is Steamax." He said as he landed on his feet, Uni held in his arms bridal style. "Lady Uni's loyal bodyguard and personal ninja."

Uni was blushing, but felt her eyes watering up as she suddenly wrapped her arms around him. "I thought you were dead! Purple Void showed your throwing star and..."

"Ah, well, if you want to know what happened..." Steamax looked rather flustered as he explained what happened.

*Flash*

Steamax didn't say anything as he twisted out of the way of a slash and put his feet on Purple Void's stomach and used it to launch himself to the ground below. He looked up to see Purple Void grimacing while several black glowing blades formed around her. "Shit!"

"Die." Purple Void whispered as she launched all of the swords at Steamax at once.

Twisting, Steamax grabbed his large throwing star from his shoulder and launched it upwards. He didn't bother waiting to see the results as he heard the clash of metal on metal and pulled out a kunai knife from his hip and wrapped a wire around the hilt before launching it at the door. When he felt the kunai stop flying, he pulled on the wire and launched himself in that direction, which allowed him to avoid the first few blades that were about to skewer him. Flipping, he landed on his feet and looked at Purple Void as she merely raised an arm up and more swords appeared around her. "I see." He could make a heroic speech here, but he needed to return to Uni to reassure her that he was alright. Plus he could see that his throwing star had been cut in half and was falling to the floor harmlessly. "I have failed, goodbye." An explosion of smoke erupted from him, which cleared out a moment later, revealing he was gone.

"I want a ninja now." Purple Void muttered, her face showing how impressed she was with Steamax escaping.

*End Flashback*

"You big dummy." Uni sniffled as she was put down and looked away, her face red. "Don't worry me like that again. I thought you died."

"My apologies, Lady Uni." Steamax told her and looked at Judge, who stood there, looking at them as he fully recovered from Steamax's save. "It seems that our friend is ready for another round."

Uni nodded and two handguns appeared in her hands. Looking at them, she smirked. 'K-Sha, I might hate you, but I really did like your guns, hope you don't mind me using them.' She didn't care if K-Sha did or not, as far as she was concerned, that bitch could rot forever, but at least her guns were good.

"More maggots and pea shooters?" Judge asked as he looked at them. "It doesn't matter, you'll both die as I break you into pieces!"

"Keep him off of me." Uni told Steamax, who nodded and rushed at Judge while Uni pointed the gun in her left hand at Judge and pulled the trigger.

"I told you, it's useleaaargh!" Judge jerked as the bullet hit him in the head and exploded. "The fuck?!"

"Explosive tipped bullets." Uni smirked at him. "Useful for dealing with idiots."

Rushing in, Steamax swung his sword at Judge, who, despite his bulk, managed to turn and block it with his halberd. "You are strong."

Judge sneered at Steamax. "Just because I'm large doesn't mean that I'm not fast. Now you can, ARGH!" He jerked back as Uni blasted him with more of those explosive bullets, causing him to stagger back.

Steamax used that opening to swing his sword at the joints of Judge, in an attempt to weaken him. Suddenly a booster on the other side of Judge's body activated and caused him to spin enough that the attack just scraped across Judge's back, leaving a tiny scratch on the metal. Sadly for Steamax the booster didn't stop and Judge kept spinning and his free arm came around, smacking Steamax off of him and causing the ninja to fly backwards. Steamax flipped in mid-air and landed on the ground, sliding backwards until he was close to Uni. "His body is like mine, even though this sword is celestial metal, I can barely do damage to him."

Uni grimaced at that. "Even my exploding bullets are barely knocking him off balance. Do you have anything that can do any real damage to him?"

"Yes." Steamax nodded. "But not as he is."

"Enough of this!" Judge roared as his halberd started to glow and he held it back. "I'll end you both right now!" He yelled and swung it in a wide arc, sending a huge wave at the two.

"Lady Uni." Steamax grabbed Uni and leaped into the air, getting above the wave.

"Good, I didn't..." Uni's eyes widened as Judge, despite his appearance, moved so fast that he was in the air near them in an instant. "Look out!"

Judge laughed as he swung his weapon at the two, hitting them both and sending them crashing into the ground hard. It was unfortunate for both Uni and Steamax that the attack sent them crashing into the ground ahead of the energy wave.

Steamax saw the attack and threw himself over Uni and both grimaced in pain as the wave washed over and engulfed them.

Landing not far from them, Judge chuckled and made his way over to them. When he got close, he used his halberd to push Steamax off of Uni, who was laying on the ground with cuts, some lightly flowing blood and scrapes all over her body while Steamax had damage all over his body. "Pathetic. This is all that you have?" Judge asked and dropped the butt of his halberd onto Uni, driving it into her stomach and causing the CPU Candidate to scream in pain while grabbing at the weapon and trying to pull it off of her body.

Judge smirked and pulled his weapon up before dropping the butt of his weapon onto Uni's left thigh, getting more screams from the girl. "How pathetic, do you, GAH!" He screamed as Steamax had recovered from the attack and drop-kicked him in the head. "JUST STAY DOWN!"

Steamax stood there, glaring at Judge, his body twitching and sparking in some places. "I will protect Lady Uni, even if it costs me my life."

"So be it." Judge snarled as he readied his weapon. "I'll destroy your body and you can watch as I kill your mistress."

Behind Steamax, Uni forced herself to her feet while recalling her Uzis. She stared at the black robot and panted hard. 'D...Dammit, if only I could just get more power...' Part of her wanted to laugh, even now Noire's words about needing power were so right.

"I'm right behind you, Steamax." Uni said as she glared at Judge. "I won't let you fight alone."

"Then you can both die together!" Judge yelled as he rushed at them again, both Uni and Steamax prepared themselves to continue the fight, both knowing that they were out-matched, but they wouldn't stop.

To be continued...

* * *

I liked this one much better.


	97. Hidden Secrets

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Karma's pure evil. I got sick. Well, been sick for a few days, finally confirmed it.

So have a chapter because I can't stop writing and I love you guys.

* * *

Chapter 86

Chrome ran across the roof she was on, jumping across the street and just barely making it to the other side as she stumbled forward a few steps before regaining her balance. Idly she noticed that Cave was able to do the same on her side, though she landed more gracefully. "Tell me, why do you serve Purple Void?" Chrome asked as she snapped her arms out and her wires launched themselves at Cave, who twisted, ducked and spun to avoid the strikes, which impressed Chrome.

"Because of MAGES.," Cave answered Chrome. "Why do you follow your version of Purple Void?"

Chrome gave Cave a silent look, her wires trembling, but not moving. "...She gave my life meaning once again. I was being crushed by a sea of despair and weariness." She gave Cave a determined look. "If I can give a brighter future for the people of Gamworld, then I'll make sure it happens." Her eyes seemed to burn with more determination than Cave could possibly imagine. "For that girl, for that silly, fun-loving CPU who came into my life, there isn't anything I wouldn't do for her."

Cave just shook her head. "I see, I really wish that we don't have to fight."

"...Do we really have to fight?" Chrome asked and looked past Cave. "...Even if we ran, it would take almost ten minutes to get back."

"You think that I can let you go past me?" Cave asked Chrome, who gave her a stern look. "I truly do understand how you feel, but I can't betray my CPU."

"...Why?" Chrome asked her. "What did she do to ensure such loyalty from someone like you?"

Cave was silent and turned to look in the direct of central square. "MAGES. and I are orphans. Our parents died when we were barely out of diapers, so I don't remember them. I do remember being in an orphanage with MAGES. and growing up with a bunch of rowdy kids. We were the closest of friends."

"Let me guess," Chrome had a fond smile on her face, even though Cave wasn't looking at her, "whenever one of you would get into a fight, the other one would be there as backup?"

Cave nodded. "Yes. Eventually we got tired of the fighting and being reprimanded for getting into fights, so we ran away. Those days hadn't been easy, but there isn't much crime here in Planeptune." She smirked and turned back to look at Chrome. "Having an unpredictable CPU is useful since no one wants to catch her attention if they did something wrong. A couple of street urchins digging for scraps?" Cave shrugged, "it wasn't fun, but one day we met the CPU when she was taking a walk and she took the pudding MAGES. had."

"So what happened?" Chrome asked as she made her wires disappeared as she noticed that Cave had put her weapon away.

"MAGES. cast an explosion spell that knocked the CPU off of her feet, and sent MAGES., myself, every parked car, person, pet and plant flying off of our feet and crashing quite a distance away." She laughed at the memory. "Boy was Purple Void mad about that, the pudding was destroyed and she had a bump on her butt and head from that. When she stormed over to us, I thought we were going to die, but she saw how we looked and suddenly started laughing and told MAGES. that was a good explosion spell, then she punched MAGES. in the stomach so hard that MAGES. threw up. Then she took MAGES. with her to the Basilicom and told me I could come along."

"So you two lived and learned at the Basilicom?" Chrome raised an eyebrow as Cave nodded. "I see, no wonder you're loyal to her."

"I truly am sorry." Cave pulled out her weapon again. "...I really wish that things were different." Gripping her scissor-like sword, she jumped at Chrome, who stood there, unmoving. At the last second, she twisted to the side and grabbed Cave's arm with her left hand, squeezing the arm and holding it in a vice-like grip.

"So am I." Chrome told Cave and caused Cave to grimace in pain as she squeezed hard enough that Cave could feel the bones threatening to break. She blocked Cave's punch with her right hand and pulled down hard. "Do you want to know something?"

"What?" Cave asked, her eyes narrowed at Chrome.

"Following a Void will only bring you to ruin." Chrome told her. "You worry about your friend, you seem to worry about the CPU Candidate as well, what about you? Aren't you worried about yourself?"

Cave gritted her teeth and crouched down, pulling Chrome off balance and then she jumped up and flipped over Chrome, causing the older woman to fall back so hard that she had to let go of Cave's arms. "I could ask you the same thing!" She yelled at Chrome, who rolled away and got to her feet quickly. "What makes you follow your Void?"

Chrome shook her head. "You're wrong, Cave. She's not a Void, she's a Heart." Cave had a confused look on her face and Chrome flexed her fingers, sending her wires after the redhead and missing with each attack, much to her surprise as Cave barely moved from her spot, yet she couldn't hit Cave, who jumped, twisted and bent in ways that would leave a flag on a pole during a windy day green with envy.

"A Heart? What kind of CPU is that?" Cave asked and cut down a wire string that got close to hitting her.

Chrome pulled her hands back and squeezed her fingers as the wires surrounded Cave on all sides. "The kind that existed in Gamworld long before the Voids came into being."

Cave twisted, dodged and parried the wires as they tried to engulf her. "And how would you know what kind of CPUs existed before Voids?"

Chrome waited for Cave to stop moving, even as her wires continued to wave in the air, before speaking again. "Because I am the last of the CPUs that existed in this world before Voids." Cave's look of sheer shock had Chrome nodding. "Yes. My name is Chrome Heart, former CPU of Eden and the only CPU from before the Voids that still lives to this day."

"Bu...But how?!" Cave couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Wait, Chrome Heart? What's your human name?"

Chrome chuckled at Cave. "I've long forgotten it. It was common practice back in those days to give up your human name when you became a CPU, I think it was Magi-something or other, if you're curious." She shrugged, it wasn't important anymore. "My sister was known as Silver Heart after all. I was the final Heart CPU of the nation of Eden, a nation that, sadly, no longer exists due to the actions of the Void that took it from me."

"But..." Cave couldn't figure out what to say to that.

"Do you really want to fight me?" Chrome asked her. "You're conflicted by your loyalty to Purple Void, aren't you?" Cave flinched slightly and Chrome sighed. "You can't hide the truth, I can feel it every time you talk about her. You feel disgust for her, don't you?"

Cave slumped and nodded. "I know it's wrong though, she's my CPU and she deserves my loyalty." She looked down at the rooftops, a troubled expression on her face.

Chrome scoffed at hearing that and dismissed her wires. "I have yet to see that." She turned to the central square. "If you want to truth to come out, let me go."

Cave looked up at her. "...What do you think the truth is?"

"...I don't know." Chrome admitted to her. "But ask yourself this, Cave." She turned her head to look at Cave. "Where do your loyalties truly lie?" She looked back at the central square. "Come with me and find out the truth about your CPU and when you do, figure out where your loyalties truly lie."

Cave looked at Chrome before taking a deep breath and letting her blade disappear. "Alright. Let's find out what the so-called truth really is." She could feel Chrome's smile and she looked towards where the central square was, which happened to be on the other side of the Basilicom. "...Well, we need to get going, huh?"

Chrome nodded and the two made their way across the rooftops as they ran back towards the battling CPUs.

'The truth, huh?' Cave thought to herself, wondering what she would find out if there really was something hidden from her and the others.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"So this is the Basilicom here, huh?" IF asked as the group entered the building. "It's kind of... Big."

"Oh crap." Linda muttered and IF wondered what she was looking at before she saw it as well.

"Oh!" RED smiled brightly. "Hey, wifies!" She waved at Linda and IF. "Did you two enjoy your night at my place?" She giggled as both Linda and IF turned bright red at the obvious memories. "I'm glad you two enjoyed yourselves."

Next to RED, Mina rubbed her forehead. "Did you seriously have a threesome with some random strangers?" When RED giggled some more, Mina just rolled her eyes. "Whatever, you freaking horn ball."

"Oh!" B-Sha smiled as she saw Compa, Warechu and Gust. "It's Compa! Hey!" She waved at the blonde. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh hey!" Compa smiled at B-Sha. "Well, we're looking for a girl named Nep... Uh..." Her smile disappeared as she saw the look of shock on B-Sha's face, the disappointed look on RED's face and the way Mina's face suddenly turned angry surprised her. "What?"

"You're the ones that the mistress warned us about?!" Mina yelled as her hair started to flutter and, in front of everyone, changed colors from blue to pink. "I won't let you take or hurt Nepgear! Do you hear me?!"

"I think we're in trouble, chu." Warechu whimpered as Mina glared at them while starting to hover in the air.

To be continued...

* * *

What the hell, Mina? Hoo boy, this is getting interesting.

And RED might have had a threesome, but it wasn't with Linda and IF.


	98. Park Rumble

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 87

There was an explosion in the park as a large ball of molten rock slammed into the ground, leaving several craters from the explosion. However, there was no one in the crater or near the explosion and thus the only thing that was hurt was the ground.

Lowering her arms, MAGES. smirked at seeing the result of her first attack. "Good job avoiding it." She whipped her left arm up and blocked a powerful lightning bolt from Rom as it hit her magic barrier. She turned her head and gave Rom a surprised look. "You got this strong just from figuring out what was bothering you, huh?"

"What?" Rom had a confused frown on her face as MAGES. cast several ice bolts at Ram, who was countering with fireballs. "What do you mean?"

"Your attack was a lot more powerful and focused." MAGES. told her and jumped away from what turned out to be a fire-whip. "Well, I might have to actually take this seriously." She said and looked at Ram, who was standing there with fire spinning around her left hand while the little girl was holding a whip of fire in her right hand. MAGES. swung her arm in a wide arc in front of her, creating a wall of ice as Ram swung her flaming whip at the blue-haired magic user. "I have to say, for two CPU Candidates, you're a lot stronger than I expected."

"How do you know that?" Rom asked as the ice wall exploded from Ram's attack. Holding her hands in front of her chest, Rom charged up her magic as electricity built up, causing her hair to start standing up from the static energy in the air. "Thunder... RAGE!" She thrust her arms forward and a powerful wave of electricity rushed forward at MAGES.

"Yikes!" MAGES. quickly buried herself under the ground and allowed the attack to pass over her harmlessly.

Sadly for everyone, the playground equipment wasn't able to dodge and was evaporated from the attack.

"ROM!" Ram gave her sister a disappointed pout. "I wanted to go on the swings again!"

Rom had blank white eyes with black circles around them as she swung her arms up and down. "B...But I didn't mean to! I wasn't trying to do that!" Her eyes watered up as she saw the destroyed and mangled playground equipment.

"Don't worry about it." They heard MAGES. say a moment before stone fists erupted out of the ground, smashing the twins in the stomach and sending both of them flying through the air. They crashed into the dirt after nearly flying out of the park and both coughed hard as they grimaced from the attack. Not far from them, the ground twisted and spun as MAGES. rose from the ground while the earth and rocks formed around her and took the shape of a large armor. "Let's go, big papa!"

Both Rom and Ram stared as they saw the large body that was surrounding MAGES. had a fist for its right hand and a drill that looked like it was made out of diamonds for a left hand.

"...That's neat." Ram admitted as the thing marched over to them. "Rom!"

Rom nodded. "Right! FRY!" Both she and Ram yelled at the same time as they sent a wave of electricity and fire at MAGES., who merely smirked as the attack washed over her and the armor, engulfing it in a onrushing wave of power that, if anyone was looking at it from the side, would be unable to see it as everything got bright before exploding.

"Did we get her?" Ram asked as their attack ended and she panted while looking at the dust cloud that was caused by the explosion.

Her question was answered as MAGES. and the armor burst through the smoke, completely unharmed. Seeing their shocked looks, MAGES. merely smirked at them. "Earth is a horrible conduit of electricity, regardless of what some fools think, it's also pretty good against fire." She rushed in and raised her armor's drill arm up, with it spinning fast and hard, before jabbing it at Ram.

"Wind burst!" Ram cried out and held her hands in front of her, jumping back as the burst of wind kicked in and sent her flying back a moment before the drill passed through where she was.

Rom clapped her hands together as a magic rune formed at her feet. "Well, how about this?! Storm!"

MAGES. turned to look at Rom curiously before realizing that the sky got dark for some reason. Looking up, she raised an eyebrow as thick, dark clouds covered the park completely, drowning the park in severe darkness. "...I'm actually impressed." She muttered as it suddenly started to rain, the winds started to blow and lightning crackled and hit the ground.

MAGES. knew she could handle a normal thunderstorm with her big papa armor. That was easy.

A thunderstorm that had water gushing out by the buckets with the wind being so strong that she was forced to take a step back and lightning being the only source of light? Yeah, that wasn't something her big papa armor could handle. "Huh, neaaawooooah!?" MAGES. let out a yell as the armor suddenly went off balance. "Oh, right, heavy rock armor on soft earth and it's raining like crazy." MAGES. slapped her forehead and giggled. "...Heavy rock armor on soft earth almost sounds like some sort of porn title. I'll have to look it up when this is over."

As the rain washed over the twins, matting their hair and clothes to their bodies, Rom suddenly smiled. "I wonder... What will happen if I blast that thing with lightning now?" Another rune appeared around the rune at her feet as lightning seemingly crackled from her eyes. "Thunder... FALL!"

MAGES. looked up as there was a flash of light in the sky and paled as she realized what was going on. "Oh poopie."

Moments later a gigantic bolt of lightning crashed down on the big papa armor, which was so bright that Rom and Ram both had to look away from it. It was so bright, in fact, that Rom lost the concentration needed to keep her storm spell going and the clouds, rain, wind and lightning all faded away after a few more moments.

When the rain stopped, both of the twins turned to look at the result of the attack and saw that the big papa armor was a glass statue that was looking up.

"You did it, Rom!" Ram cheered and looked at her sister, who slumped down into the mud. "Rom?!" She yelled and ran through the mud and muck to her sister. "Are you okay?" She asked as she got next to Rom.

"That..." Rom panted as Ram helped her stand up. "Was tiring." She looked at Ram, who was looking away. "What's wrong?"

"...Next time you make it storm, don't wear a light colored shirt." Ram pointed out and Rom looked down and turned bright red as she realized that the white shirt she had been wearing was now see-through thanks to the water and was clinging to her boobs.

"Good thing no one's around." Rom muttered as she tugged upwards on her shirt to peel it off of her boobs so it wouldn't stick as tightly, remembering what Neptune and Chrome had said about weirdos wanting to do lewd things to them.

"I agree," MAGES. said and the twins looked at her as she stood in front of the glass form of her big papa armor. "No, please, leave your shirt alone, I didn't mind the show." She giggled as Rom blushed bright red. "I'm teasing you, kiddo."

"...How are you unhurt?" Ram asked and MAGES. rolled her eyes.

"Oh, I dunno," MAGES. shrugged, "maybe I'm pretty good with magic and countering the effects of various magics or something?" She finished sarcastically while smirking at the two. "Besides, I wanted to see if you two could get past that armor." She tapped her chin and realized something. "Huh, you're the first two since the CPU to beat that armor." She smiled brightly and clapped her hands. "It figures that CPU Candidates could get through that armor."

"...You said that before... How did you know?" Rom asked and MAGES. nodded at her.

"Oh that's pretty simple, kiddo." MAGES. answered her, "I've been spying on you two since our encounter."

"Dang it." Ram muttered as she let go of Rom and the two prepared themselves to face MAGES. again.

"If you two want to stop fighting, I'll teach you how to use your magic in ways that you never thought possible." MAGES. smiled brightly at them, causing the twins to give her a confused look. "Plus I can design clothes that cling to your body and show off your best assets."

"Sorry," Rom shook her head, "we need to help big sis Neptune against Purple Void." Ram nodded her head.

MAGES. sighed and shook her head. "If you can't get past me, you'll stand no chance against the CPU. But if you want to continue this fight..." One of her rings glowed a bright blue and all the water on the ground was suddenly sucked off of the ground and pooled together into four spheres around MAGES. that turned into crystals, then shifted into stars, then shifted into various weapons. One was a spear, one was an axe, one was a sword and the last one was a shield. "I think you'll find that you're in over your head as you are."

Rom looked at the weapons, then looked at Ram, who was looking at her and they both nodded before looking back at MAGES.. "So what?" MAGES. raised an eyebrow. "So what if you're better than us! We won't let big sis Neptune down!"

"That's right!" Ram had a look of determination that wasn't on her face the last time MAGES. had seen these two. "We're the CPU Candidates of Lowee! We can't lose!"

"Besides!" Rom continued as power built up around her. "We're going to be Heart CPUs! Not Void CPUs! If we lose to you without going all out, then what was the point of all of what we went through?"

MAGES. slowly smiled as she chuckled. "Well said. I really do like you two." She slowly raised her left hand and closed it into a fist. "And so..." MAGES. suddenly started to glow brightly. "I won't insult you anymore!" Her rings started to all glow at once. "I won't hold back!"

"We're ready." Rom said as she and Ram both powered up as well.

"Then let us begin round two!" MAGES. intoned.

To be continued...

* * *

Good luck girls, you're going to need it. Or maybe not, MAGES. is pretty random.


	99. Blues

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Oh hey, it's time to find out what's with Mina. The title should give you a clue.

* * *

Chapter 88

"CALM DOWN!" IF yelled as she hid behind a desk before jumping as a beam of energy blasted the desk apart. She paled as Mina walked her way, glowing with lots of power.

"You won't take Nepgear!" Mina yelled as her hair danced in the air. Snapping her fingers, several balls of fire erupted around her. "Now fry!"

IF's eyes widened as the fireballs came charging in at her. "N.. N..."

"GET DOWN!" Linda yelled as she tackled IF from the side, allowing the fireballs to pass overhead and explode against the wall. "JEEZ! You want to get burned again?" IF looked at her, fear in her eyes and Linda got off of IF, pulling her along as another blast of magic ripped through where they had been a moment ago. "Sheesh!"

In another part of the large room, Gust was hiding behind a pillar when she spotted RED crouched down next to her, covering her head with her hands as explosions rocked the room. "Why don't you stop her?"

RED looked at Gust as though the blue-haired bunny girl had lost her mind. "Are you crazy? Whenever Mina thinks she's going to upset my wifey, she gets all crazy and does this." There was a contemplative look on her face as she thought about that statement. "Well, there was that time that one of Judge's training robots hit poor Nepgear in the head and knocked her out. Judge had to be put back together after Mina got done with him." She giggled and sighed. "Anyway, yeah, Mina gets like this every so often."

"And this is normal?!" Gust asked, before yelping as the pillar she was hiding behind was blasted apart and Mina started walking to her. "Okay... Gust is scared now." Unlike when she faced off against Rom, Mina seemed to be in complete control, if really, really angry.

"Just get..." Mina stopped as RED got in front of her, the redhead held her arms out to the sides. "What are you doing? We need to stop them from getting to Nepgear."

"We don't need to kill them, you know?" RED told Mina. "Please, Mina, you really snapped this time."

"I gotta agree with RED on this one," B-Sha spoke up as she popped her head up from behind a desk. "Come on, Mina. Usually you don't blast a large area like this."

_"So long as you never fail me, you'll never have to worry about that happening to you. But of course, if you do..."_

Mina's pupils shrank as those words reverberated in her head. "No... No... NO!" Suddenly lightning crashed around her in wide arcs.

Gust yelped before being grabbed by RED, who pulled out a wooden deck fan and put it in-between them and the lightning. "Huh? Aren't you supposed to stop Gust?"

RED smiled at Gust. "And let a cute wifey like you get hurt because Mina's going crazy again?" She winked as Gust blushed before she got up while holding Gust and ran off when the umbrella was destroyed. "Come on, Mina!" She implored the pink-haired girl. "Stop this!"

"You just want the Mistress to abandon me!" Mina snarled at RED and a hand of magical energy rushed out, grabbing RED, who let Gust go and lifted the redhead up into the air. "If not for the mistress telling me I couldn't hurt you, I would have ended you a long time ago."

RED cried out as she felt her bones being crushed by the grip that was squeezing her. Her left hand was caught under the the fingers of the hand and she hit the hand with her free hand. "Please! Mina! Stop!" She coughed as she felt something break. "Please..." RED had blood come out of her mouth as she looked at Mina helplessly.

"I won't leURGH!" Mina's eyes widened as a crack was heard in room and the berserk girl suddenly fell to the ground in a heap, her hair turning back to its normal blue.

"Calm down, sheesh!" Linda growled as she dropped the pipe in her hands to the ground. Not far away, RED crashed to the ground with a cry of pain. "You okay?"

RED grimaced, coughing some blood from her mouth. "She..." RED smiled at Linda. "Mina's usually a lot cuter than this."

Suddenly the doors to the back of the room burst open. "What the heck is..." Nepgear, who had been hiding in the back of the Basilicom, could only stare at the destruction. "What's going on?!"

B-Sha looked at Mina, then at RED, then at the others who were peeking their heads out from behind various things and sighed. "Can we get them to a healing bed and I'll tell you what's going on, Ge-Ge."

Compa looked at Nepgear and tilted her head. "Ge-Ge? That's really cute."

Nepgear looked at Compa, then at those that she knew and frowned. "Yeah, let's go, there's a healing room back here." Her eyes widened as Compa went over to RED. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" She was about to rush over to Compa when she saw Compa gently moving RED into a more comfortable position before lifting her up.

"I'm a doctor." Compa told Nepgear as she stood up and grimaced slightly while trying to carry RED. "One who needs to do some leg lifts apparently."

RED laughed painfully before groaning. "Hurts to laugh."

Linda sighed and picked up Mina in a similar way to Compa. "Sorry about hitting your friend like that, I didn't want to die... Or my girlfriend to get burned again."

"Fine..." Nepgear turned and motioned for people to follow her. "This way."

"I'm surprised you trust us." IF told her.

"I don't." Nepgear answered her. "You're here to kill my sister and take me from her, but I won't let Mina or RED be hurt if I can help it."

IF sighed and looked at Compa, then at Linda, then she looked at Gust and Warechu, who were next to her. "Hey, um... Gear, was it?" Nepgear turned her head to look at IF. "Listen, I don't know what you think you know, but you need to know about Voids."

Nepgear had a confused frown on her face, but she nodded.

(-)

A few minutes later...

After putting RED and Mina down on separate beds and putting bars above them, Nepgear and Compa got to work making sure that they were capable of being treated.

"Um, can I talk to you now?" IF asked and Nepgear nodded as she looked over the data. "You see how my skin isn't normal? Or Compa's arms?"

"Huh?" Nepgear blinked and looked at IF and her darkened skin with blue, yellow and red lines across it. "...You look like you're wearing war paint or something."

"I'm not." IF told her. "I lived in Lowee my whole life, I had friends, their names were CyberConnect, Marvy and Falcom." She closed her eyes and shuddered at the memories. "White Void, I don't know why she did it, but she trapped them, me and a few others in the guild and burned it down with us in it."

Nepgear gasped and stared in horror at IF. "But..."

"I was the only survivor." IF told Nepgear. "White Void also destroyed both of Compa's arms."

"We all suffered under White Void." Compa spoke to Nepgear. "Rom and Ram were White Void's sisters and she hurt them so much." She bit her lip and went back to working on the equipment. "If not for Nep Nep, poor Rom would have become a Void."

Linda sneered. "Leanbox wasn't any better. You know what Green Void had going on over there?" Nepgear slowly shook her head. "She had a freaking baby-making and tentacle-breeding pit."

"What?" Nepgear stared at her. "What do you mean?"

"What she means, Chu..." Warechu spoke up, "Green Void wanted really sexy women and men and anyone who didn't make the cut tended to be fed to tentacle monsters."

"But that's horrible!" Nepgear protested, her face stark white. "Tentacle monsters breeding with people changes them so they can only make more tentacle monsters before they become absorbed by the center mass and become part of the larger tentacle monster itself!"

The others in the room nodded, they all knew that.

"And that was going on in Leanbox?" Nepgear asked, trembling. "Is... Is that why you want to kill my sister?"

"Your sister threatened to kill everyone in Planeptune if Nep and the others didn't show up to face her." IF pointed out and Nepgear flinched but didn't protest it. "Look, Gear, we know not all Voids are bad." Nepgear raised her head, a hopeful look on her face. "The last Void we met, her name was Noire. She was actually a really good Void who did all she could to help the people of Lastation. She even sacrificed herself to save the people and her nation from being destroyed."

"Oh." Nepgear whispered softly. "Wait." Her eyes widened. "Didn't Uni say something about a Noire?"

"That was her big sister." Compa told Nepgear. "We were told that Uni loved Noire so much and Uni even had a funeral for her and Uni, Nep Nep and Chromey went on television to tell people what Noire did for them. But your Nep Nep," Compa frowned and looked at RED and then at Mina. "Why did Mina try to hurt everyone?"

"I can answer that." An older woman's voice was heard as someone walked into the room. Turning, the group saw an older woman with long, dark hair, a pale complexion who was wearing long, dark pants and a dark shirt under a white lab coat. Her large bust, despite the coat hiding it, showed that at one point she had been an incredible beauty. Despite her age, she still retained quite a bit of her looks, other than the fading hair color and some wrinkles on her skin. "After all," she gave Mina a sad look, "everything with Mina is my fault."

"Lady, you're going to have to explain." Linda said with her arms crossed over her chest. "I don't like this "oh, it's all my fault" and we're supposed to feel sorry for you or her. It's old."

The woman chuckled as she walked into the room and walked over to Mina. "No, the whole reason she even exists is my fault. You see, it was... I believe sixteen years ago now when Lady Purple Void had come to me and talked about my research into artificial life."

"Why were you researching artificial life?" Nepgear asked the woman, who sighed softly.

"My daughter died to a rare sickness that had no cure to it." The scientist told Nepgear. "I wanted to try and clone her to bring her back, but it never worked." She had a wistful look on her face. "I did get close, but ah," she shook her head, "story for another time, I suppose." She waved her hand to dismiss any questions. "Well, obviously creating something from nothing, even for me, was impossible. I needed a base. So I searched for an infant or a baby that I thought could work out."

"Wait," Gust spoke up, her pupils shrinking as the implications hit her like a sack of bricks. "You stole a baby and..."

"Absolutely not!" The woman interrupted Gust. "I merely took the child, drew some blood and cloned the child's body."

"Oh." Gust sighed and nodded. "Gust apologizes, but Gust assumed the worst."

"It's fine." The older woman smiled softly. "Anyway, while I cloned the baby perfectly, Lady Purple Void told me that she wanted a sister or something like a sister." She looked at Nepgear, who had a troubled look on her face. "Don't worry, dear, you were born like every CPU is. At least, I assume that they're born from an excess of Fearicite energy." She looked back at Mina and sighed again. "Well, I used the cloned baby and used it as a base for a new clone. Clone of a clone, who would have thought?" She chuckled, though there was no mirth in her laugh. "Anyway, while I was making the biological concoction, Purple Void pulls out a sword and runs her hand over the sharp part of the sword, dropping her blood into the vat."

"So what happened?" IF asked, curious about the events that transpired.

The woman sighed softly. "It took me over five hundred attempts to create a perfect body before they stopped exploding in the vats." The others turned green at the mental image. "Oh, it's worse. It took me another two hundred attempts before the bodies would last more than five minutes after being removed from the vats before they melted into puddles of goo."

"Eww!" Everyone said at the same time.

"Well, a year after the whole thing started, so fifteen years ago if you don't want to do math, I was finally successful." The woman looked at Mina. "Mina was the 747th experiment and the first one that was successful."

"So, why did she freak out?" B-Sha asked as she looked at Mina. "Sure, I fight with her, but she's my friend and..."

"Do you really want to know?" Mina suddenly spoke up as she slowly opened her eyes. "Ngh, my head."

"You recovered pretty quick." The woman said to her. "How long have you been awake?"

"Since you came in." Mina told her. She looked at everyone who was looking at her curiously and sighed. "Well, this is what happened..."

*Flash*

"So this is the only successful one you've made?" A voice Mina had never heard spoke up and Mina sat up from the bed. The young girl, who had to be no older than eight years old sat up and saw a purple-haired woman in a bikini walk into the room behind the kind old woman that had been taking care of her. "Why is she older than I would have expected?"

"A slight age acceleration process, Lady Purple Void." The woman told the bikini-clad woman. "I figured that you would prefer not to have a young child walking around and this was as far as I was willing to go. She should age normally from here on out."

"I see..." Purple Void looked at the girl with narrowed eyes. "What's with the blue hair and eyes?"

The woman sighed and her shoulders sagged. "I apologize, but I could not get it to come out any other way."

"I suppose..." Purple Void narrowed her eyes at the girl. "Eliminate her." Both Mina and the woman gave her a startled look. "I have no interest in her if she isn't what I want."

"Eliminate..?" Mina whispered, her eyes watering up. "That means... No... Please!" She ran to the large glass window that split the two rooms apart and banged on it. "Please! I don't want to die!"

Purple Void gave the scientist an annoyed look. "Did you give her a sense of life or something?"

The scientist sweat-dropped heavily. "It's, ah, natural for all life forms to want to survive, Lady Purple Void. I thought you wouldn't want an idiot as a sister, so I made sure to upload information into her head, including what death was."

Purple Void huffed and crossed her arms while looking away. "Whatever, just have it done before the day is out."

"No..." Mina yelled as she banged on the window harder and harder. "Please! I'm sorry! PLEASE!"

The woman looked at Purple Void. "Please, my lady, surely she'll be of great..." She stopped speaking as a sword was pointed at her, the tip touching her nose. "...Yes, milady." She said, a soft, sad tone in her voice. "It'll be done."

Mina stared as the scientist walked over to a control panel, her eyes watering up. "Please... No... No... NOOOOO!" She screamed and started to glow brightly, catching both Purple Void and the scientist by surprise. "I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" She held up her hands and a blast of pure magical power erupted from her, blasting through the glass and slamming into Purple Void, causing the CPU to fly across the room and hit the far wall.

Purple Void grunted and looked at Mina, who was glowing and noticed not only was her hair pink, but her eyes had changed to a similar color. "Well, it seems that you were more successful than I thought." She chuckled and pulled herself off of the wall and walked to Mina, uncaring that the girl was crying and screaming still. "Do you want to live?" Mina nodded rapidly and Purple Void smiled at her. "What's your name?"

"M...Mina." The girl sniffled and Purple Void nodded and turned to the scientist.

"Well, I think I'll take her." Purple Void chuckled and the scientist smiled in relief. "You have other clones, right?" A nod was her answer and Purple Void smirked in a way that caused the very air to go cold. "Destroy them. I have no need for extra clones."

"Y...Yes." The woman nodded and typed a few buttons on the control panel.

Mina's eyes widened as she heard a squelching sound. Turning slowly, she saw a bunch of bodies, all of whom looked almost identical, suddenly twisting, expanding and exploding in the tubes they were in. "That..."

"So long as you never fail me, you'll never have to worry about that happening to you. But of course, if you do..." Purple Void spoke to Mina, smirking as the girl looked at her fearfully. "So do what I say and you'll live a long, happy and wonderful life." She frowned at Mina. "Fail me, even once, and you will share the same fate as your clone sisters."

"I promise!" Mina yelled, tears in her eyes. "I won't ever fail you!"

"Call me Mistress... What was your name?" Purple Void tilted her head in confusion.

"M...Mina, mistress." The girl whimpered as Purple Void picked her up and turned to leave.

"Clean this mess up." Purple Void told the scientist and left.

*End Flashback*

Mina looked at everyone with tears in her eyes. "That's why I can't fail mistress, even once. If I do, I'll be eliminated."

The elder woman sighed heavily. "I apologize, I had forgotten that happened. Then again, when you're as old as I am, you tend to forget details all the time."

"But you haven't failed my sister." Nepgear smiled at Mina. "I'm sure that she won't..." Whatever she was going to say was cut off as a rumbling sound suddenly came from the ceiling. "What the heck is..?"

Everyone flinched and ducked their head as the ceiling burst open.

"What the heck is that?!" Warechu yelled as he saw what was poking through the ceiling.

"What the hell?!" Nepgear gasped, having never seen it before. "What's going on?!"

To be continued...

* * *

In case you're wondering, that scientist woman is based on an anime character. She created a Project to try and change FATE after all.


	100. Purple Throwdown

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

It's finally time.

But first! I'd like to say that I never expected to get to 100 chapters on this story. I was expecting the story to be done awhile ago, TBH. Anyway, thank you, everyone, for sticking with me so far and I hope you continue to read to the end.

* * *

Chapter 89

The two clashed their blades against each other as they glared at each other, Purple Heart's katana was being blocked by Purple Void's twin swords as she held them in a cross formation in front of her. "One big sword, really?" Purple Void sneered at Purple Heart. "I wonder if you're telling people that you like 'em big and hard?"

Purple Heart growled at the insinuation. "Better big and hard than small little pricks like you seem to enjoy." Her eyes went over the two swords in Purple Void's hands and she smirked. "If I'm telling people what I like with my sword, what's that say about you? You like being unsatisfied or something?"

Purple Void chuckled at her Heart counterpart. "I prefer girls, their bodies bounce and jiggle in bed more."

Purple Heart's sword lit up in flames. "I actually agree with you on the enjoyable parts of a female lover. Blaze Break!" With a burst of strength, she pushed Purple Void away from her, engulfing her counter-part with fire.

Purple Void grimaced and her swords became encased in ice as she spun around a couple of times, putting the fire out. "Neptune..." Purple Void whispered as she shot forward like a rocket. "SLAM!"

Throwing up a guard as fast as she could, Purple Heart grimaced as the attack hit home, sending her flying back with frost covering her hands. A quick burst of flames from her sword melted the frost. "Okay, so she's faster than I thought." When several dark swords formed around Purple Void, Purple Heart gritted her teeth and an equal amount of swords formed around her. "Thirty-two bit..."

"Thirty-two byte..." Purple Void intoned. "Giga Blade!"

"Mega Blade!" Both CPUs yelled at the same time, launching their attacks at each other. Purple Heart's swords were launched straight at Purple Void, leaving a golden trail of light in their path while Purple Void's swords curved and bent through the air, a streak of pure darkness cutting through the air in their wake. Most of the swords still crashed into each other, however, two swords of darkness cut through the wave of swords and Purple Heart swung her katana to the side for one as she bent out of the way of the other one, the blade barely passing over her body with barely any space between it and her body.

"GAH!" Purple Void cried out as the sword in her left hand was blasted out of her hand as one of Purple Heart's blades got through to her and almost took the Void's hand off. "That was close."

"Oh?" Purple Heart straightened herself out. "You don't seem very skilled if a basic attack like that could disarm you."

Purple Void sneered and flexed her fingers as a small portal opened behind her and another sword seemingly slid into her open hand. "Don't think you're better than me." Purple Void rushed in and slashed with her right sword in an over-head chop, only for Purple Heart to swing upwards to block it. Purple Void stabbed forward with her left sword and Purple Heart kicked upwards with her right knee, knocking the blade off-course and missing Purple Heart completely. Purple Void gritted her teeth and swung her left arm at Purple Heart, who pushed her katana up, knocking Purple Void's right arm out of the way and quickly moved her katana to block the oncoming slice.

Purple Heart was panting softly. The only reason she was able to move this fast was because she was using her shares to create bursts of speed to do what should have been impossible. While useful, it was tiring and burned through more Shares than what most people realized. "Dual Edge!" She yelled and slashed hard, knocking her bikini-clad counterpart away from her.

Purple Void growled and created four gigantic blades and dropped them where they crashed into the ground and surrounded Purple Heart as they glowed brightly. "Imprisoning Sword Dome." She snapped her fingers as an eruption of energy blasted upwards, causing Purple Heart to scream in pain and Purple Void merely smirked. "You're impressive, but you're... Huh?" Purple Void gawked as there was a bulge in the erupting energy and a black jet with purple lines burst out of the attack. "Interesting, but I can do that too. HDD Neptune!" She cried out and jumped into the air as her body glowed and transformed into a similar looking jet to what Purple Heart had turned into.

"Should have figured she could do that." Heart Jet muttered to herself as she hit the boosters and accelerated.

"Get back here!" Void Jet yelled and zipped after Heart Jet. As she closed in on Heart Jet, two gun turrets near her nose opened up and started firing, forcing Heart Jet to shift side to side to avoid taking damage. After a few moments of this, Purple Jet turned and shot upwards and she was followed by Void Jet. "I'm just as maneuverable as you are, I'll hunt you down and take you out."

Heart Jet suddenly cut her engines and started to descend while turning and pointing right at Void Jet. "Really?" She asked and fired several missiles right at Void Jet before reactivating her boosters and zipping away.

Void Jet sneered and fired bullets to destroy the missiles that were fired at her, only to gasp as the warheads of the missiles opened up and several micro-missiles were fired as the larger ones were destroyed. "YOU BITCH!" She screamed as was caught by the trap Heart Jet had laid out and getting engulfed in a fiery explosion.

"This is almost too easy." Heart Jet muttered to herself and flew to the ground as her EXE attack ran out of power and she transformed back into Purple Heart. "Is she playing with me or..?" Purple Heart gasped as there were black glowing blades all around her, pointing at all sorts of angles.

"Just kidding!" Void Jet called out as the jet rushed down at Purple Heart. "Time to slice and dice!"

Wasting no time, Purple Heart started to do back flips to avoid the swords for several feet before she stopped and slid backwards while pulling out her katana and cutting at the swords, shattering them into particles of energy. "This..." She launched herself forward and slashed so fast that she left an X-shaped pattern behind, shattering more than a dozen swords. "Take this!" She cried out and spun around, her sword glowing with power as she sent a wave of energy at the remaining swords, shattering them. "Is that all you... GUH!" Purple Heart gasped as it felt like her heart was throbbing. 'Dammit, not now!' She gasped and clutched at her chest with her free hand. 'Damn you, Kurome!'

"Oh?" Void Jet chuckled as she transformed back into Purple Void a few feet away from Purple Heart. "It seems that you're having some trouble. Having a heart attack, you fake?"

Purple Heart glared at her evil counter part, her left eye glowing brightly as she tried to suppress what she had just felt. "The only fake I see is a CPU who would rather destroy her nation than protect its people."

"BORING!" Purple Void yelled and looked away in annoyance. "I'd rather just play games, eat pudding, go for enthusiastic and long walks while doing lewd things to my little sister." She looked back at Purple Heart and grinned. "You should really hear the way she whimpers when you rub her..." It was only sheer, dumb luck that had her dodging and kept her head from being bisected when Purple Heart launched a sword at her so fast that she didn't even see it as she ducked and only lost a few strands of hair. "Wow, touchy."

"You leave Nepgear alone, you freak!" Purple Heart snarled at Purple Void. "She doesn't deserve what you do to her."

Purple Void chuckled and dismissed her swords as she suddenly grinned. "You know, I think it's time to stop messing around with you." Her voice lost all of its humor as the air started to get tense. "I'm going to kill you and end the suffering of this world once and for all."

"What do you mean?" Purple Heart asked as she tried to fight off the after-shocks of the pain she had been feeling from the Fearicite in her.

"Imagine being born into a world that revels in pain and suffering," Purple Void spoke as the energy in the air continued to rise, "and all you could feel, from the day you were born, was everyone's hatred, sadness and pain." She snarled as she glowed red. "Not just in your nation, but across this godforsaken world all at the same damn time!"

A red pillar with black numbers erupted from Purple Void as she was consumed by the Fearicite energy within her.

"Dammit..." Purple Heart panted as she knew what was coming next.

When the pillar of energy ended, at first Purple Heart thought that her evil counterpart hadn't changed much at all, just that her gloves and boots had become metal as everything else looked the same as usual, except that her irises had changed from blue to a crimson red.

When four large, metallic tentacle-like arms came out of the transformed Purple Void's back, each one revealing to have reptilian-like mouths that opened up to reveal what looked like a laser cannon in the center of them, Purple Heart knew that her other self had fully transformed.

"Purple Nightmare is here." Purple Nightmare, a mask that made her face look something like an alien lobster's face, told her. "As is my sword..." A double-bladed purple sword slid out of a portal in the sky and Purple Heart's eyes shrank as she saw it. While she had never seen that sword before, the feeling she got from it was one of raw malice, power and carnage. "Gehaburn, the Cursed God-Slaying Sword." Purple Nightmare said as she took the sword, gave it a swing and took a stance while her four tentacle arms waved behind her.

"Well... Fuck." Purple Heart muttered to herself as she finally suppressed the pain she had been feeling fully.

To be continued...

* * *

If you're having trouble picturing what the tentacle arms look like, think Doc Oc (Spider-Man) arms with the heads looking like the heads of Grabboids (Tremors movies). As for the skull mask, think a lobster.


	101. Purple Nightmare

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 90

Purple Nightmare chuckled as she looked at Purple Heart's expression. "You don't seem shocked by this, so I assume you know of this already, huh?"

"With the exception of Iris Void, every Void I met used their Nightmare form." Purple Heart told her and looked at the metal tentacle arms and sighed in relief. "I'll say this," Purple Nightmare raised an eyebrow as Purple Heart smirked at her, "at least I don't have to worry about you doing naughty things with those tentacles."

"...Huh?" Purple Nightmare looked at her upper right tentacle, which seemingly turned to look at her before both looked back at Purple Heart. "...Oh, you've had tentacles shoved in you, huh?"

"Green Void's Nightmare form was a spider and used tentacles." Purple Heart said before snapping her fingers and launching a few blades at Purple Nightmare. Before they even got close, the ends of the tentacle arms opened up and fired blasts of energy at the swords, destroying them. "I didn't think that would work." She muttered as she extended her wings and took off into the air while Purple Nightmare followed after her.

"That's interesting." Purple Nightmare chuckled and sent her tentacle arms, all four of them, forward at Purple Heart, who put her hand on the first one that got close to her to push herself above it. As she flew upwards, another tentacle head rose with her while pointing at her and fired a blast of energy, which Purple Heart countered by creating an energy blade, allowing it to shatter to block the attack. Purple Heart launched a sword at the tentacle to knock it aside before turning to slash at one that tried to ram her from behind, blocking it with a shower of sparks.

"Nnnngh..." Purple Heart gritted her teeth as she pushed against the tentacle attacking her. "So..." Her eyes widened as she felt something wrap around her legs from below. The next thing she knew, she was being pulled at high speeds and slammed onto the ground hard enough to leave an indent in the ground. Grimacing, Purple Heart looked at her legs and saw that there were wires wrapped around her legs coming out of the mouth of one of the tentacle arms like some sort of spider web.

"Is that all?" Purple Nightmare taunted Purple Heart and used her tentacle to lift her counterpart up and slam her back down onto the ground several more times. She stopped and saw how Purple Heart wasn't moving before tossing her into the air and letting go. As Purple Heart flew through the air helplessly, Purple Nightmare rushed up at her with Gehaburn held to the side. "DIE!" She yelled as she flew at the upside down CPU.

Just as she got close to Purple Heart's head, the unconscious CPU suddenly twitched before flipping over and slamming her blade against Gehaburn. Purple Heart could only smirk at the shocked look on Purple Nightmare's face. "What? Never heard of strategy?" She pushed upwards, knocking Purple Nightmare off balance before kicking her away. Before the Nightmare CPU could recover, Purple Heart swung her sword upwards, sending a wave of energy at her. "I grow tired of facing monsters like you." Purple Heart muttered and swung down, sending another wave of energy at Purple Nightmare. Both waves hit and seemingly held Purple Nightmare in an upside down V before Purple Heart spun around and launched a third and final wave at the Purple Nightmare.

When the three waves of energy connected, they turned into the number four and exploded as Purple Heart smirked. "How did you like my Delta Slash?"

Purple Nightmare grimaced as she flew backwards from the attack. Her tentacle limbs snapped out and grabbed the ground to stop her from moving backwards any further and she growled at Purple Heart as Gehaburn started to glow purple. Letting out a yell, she swung it forward, sending a wave of dark purple energy out that tore through everything with ease.

The speed at which the wave was heading her way reminded Purple Heart of Nepgear's Slash Wave and she quickly burst to the side to avoid the attack, which she was able to do.

The energy surrounding the direct wave was impossible to dodge and it consumed Purple Heart, causing her to cry out in pain as it engulfed her before sending her flying backwards, where she crashed on her back and bounced a couple of times, causing her to cry out in pain before she gritted her teeth and flipped back onto her feet and slid back a few more inches. "...D...Dammit..." Purple Heart panted as she bled from various places on her face, arms, legs and torso. It was all shallow cuts that looked worse than they actually were and thanks to her shares, she was already healing. She jumped away from several blasts from the tentacle limbs and fired back with materialized swords, only to grimace as they were countered by Purple Void's own swords. 'Fighting at long range won't work, so...'

Purple Nightmare smirked before tilting her head in confusion as Purple Heart suddenly formed a sigil under her feet. "Just what are..?"

Like a rocket, Purple Heart was suddenly in front of her and driving her foot into Purple Nightmare's stomach, causing her to gasp and sending the Nightmare flying. "Dammit!" Purple Nightmare cried out and her tentacle limbs shot out behind her, grabbing at the ground, trees, and eventually buildings and pulling Purple Nightmare along as she tried to get some distance from Purple Heart, only to find it wasn't working as the Heart CPU kept on her, the two clashed blades as they left the central square and started fighting over the buildings.

As their blades clashed again, Purple Heart sneered at Purple Nightmare, who glared at her. "I finally figured it out." Purple Heart said to her counterpart. "Why I can't stand you."

"Why?" Purple Nightmare growled at Purple Heart.

"Because you're pathetic." Purple Heart sneered at her counterpart as they pushed their blades against each other while flying through Gamindustri. "You claim that you felt all of the world's pain, suffering, hate and other negative emotions since you were born?"

"Yeah, I did." Purple Nightmare pushed back against Purple Heart. "You think you're better than me? Do you think I'm pathetic because I'm a Void?"

"Just because you were born of Fearicite doesn't mean that you had to become a monster." Memories of Black Void and all that she did flashed through Purple Heart's head. "Noire suffered in ways I couldn't possibly imagine and she still didn't completely fall to the darkness despite being a Void." Her left eye glowed brightly and seemingly trailed flames out of it as Purple Heart continued to talk. "If you felt all the pain in the world, you could have done something positive, but you took the easy way out."

"Tch, easy way?" Purple Nightmare pulled Gehaburn back and slashed forward, her blade clashing with Purple Heart's sword. Meanwhile her metal tentacle limbs continued to pull her across the skyline of Planeptune. "The easy way would have been to ignore everything. I plan on ending all of the world's suffering."

"So why didn't you?" Purple Heart demanded as they swung their blades into each other and twisted their arms to the side while glaring at each other.

"Because I'd rather have fun and eat pudding than go through with it." Purple Nightmare smirked at Purple Heart. "And if you're anything like me, you would rather nap, eat pudding and play games than do what you're supposed to do."

Purple Heart gasped, her pupils shrinking slightly as she heard that. "But that..."

Purple Nightmare chuckled at her. "And how many times have you put off doing what you're supposed to do just so you can have fun?"

Memories of what happened after the Deity of Sin had been defeated, how she had spent years with her friends playing games instead of working and completely angering Histoire over it, of the years spent in Plutia's world where she had slept, gamed and messed around instead of trying to gather shares to help Histoire out in opening a portal back home. Or how she put off doing as much work as possible leading up to the CPU Shift period that almost ended with Gamindustri being destroyed. "That..."

Purple Nightmare grinned at her. "You know I'm right. You're no different than me."

Something in Purple Heart snapped at that. "You're wrong! I'm nothing like you!" Her left eye glowed even brighter as she increased her power. "I might be lazy!" She struck at Purple Nightmare, leaving a shallow cut in the other CPU's right shoulder. "I might not be a good big sister!" The two clashed their blades against each other a few more times. "But there's one thing I have over you."

"And that is?" Purple Nightmare asked.

"I never gave up." Purple Heart told her counterpart, who looked at her in confusion. "If I was as pathetic as you, I would have become like you when I was first exposed to a dimension of pure sadness."

Purple Nightmare sneered at Purple Heart and was about to respond when she felt something at the back of her head. 'Oh? We're that close to her, huh?' Purple Nightmare let out a grunt of pain as Purple Heart kicked her in the stomach, sending her flying backwards. Instead of looking at Purple Heart, Purple Nightmare looked at a nearby building and smirked as one of her tentacle limbs started to spin and rushed right towards that building.

(-)

"What the hell?!" Nepgear gasped, having never seen it before. "What's going on?!"

"Um..." Gust spoke up and pointed at Nepgear. "Why is there something glowing under your shirt?"

"Huh?" Nepgear reached under her shirt and pulled out a lion pendant that was glowing. "Neptune gave me this and, EEEK!" Suddenly the mouth of the metal tentacle arm opened up and several cables wrapped around Nepgear, pulling her out of the hole in the ceiling.

"The fuck!?" More than one person said at once.

"Get me out of this!" Mina yelled as Compa and Linda undid the binds holding her and RED down. "We need to save Lady Nepgear!"

"Right!" They all said as Mina blasted the hole so that it was wider and used magic to levitate everyone through it.

What they saw had them staring in absolute shock and horror.

(-)

A few moments ago...

Everything seemed to slow down when she saw the terrified face of Nepgear suddenly in the air between her and Purple Nightmare. The only thing Purple Heart could hear was her own heart beat. She knew she was yelling out Nepgear's name, but she couldn't hear it. She saw the cruel and callous smirk on Purple Nightmare's face as she let go of Nepgear and readied that purple sword.

Without even thinking, Purple Heart formed a sigil under her feet and launched herself at Nepgear as Purple Nightmare swung Gehaburn at Nepgear from behind. Grabbing Nepgear, Purple Heart managed to spin around and cried out in pain as Gehaburn cut deep into her back, through her left wing. Looking at Nepgear even as she felt herself falling, Purple Heart smiled, even though tears of pain were coming out of her eyes. "Nep...GEAAAAAHHH!" She screamed as Gehaburn was stabbed into her lower back, right through her spine and the tip of Gehaburn came out of Purple Heart's stomach.

"Now you can die..." Purple Nightmare whispered and kicked Purple Heart off of Gehaburn and down to the ground below.

Purple Heart had her eyes screwed shut as she fell. 'Oh fuck, this hurts so much.' She wasn't sure which was worse, this or the Fearicite torture she had suffered through in Lastation, but either way, it hurt really badly. Grimacing and cracking an eye open, she saw that the ground was rapidly approaching. Using the last of her strength, she grabbed Nepgear as she pulled her little sister close to her body and spun around so that she would crash into the ground instead of Nepgear.

Purple Heart barely felt the landing as she hit the ground and slid several feet before stopping. Letting her arms flop to the ground, she cracked an eye open to see Nepgear looking at her while crying softly. "Don't cry, Nep...Gear..." Purple Heart's voice was hoarse and soft. "A...Are you okay?" Nepgear nodded and Purple Heart smiled while closing her eyes. "Th...en... It...s all... good..."

Nepgear watched in horror as Purple Heart's head flopped to the ground and her transformation ended, reverting her back to her human form. "Neptune..." She whispered and shook the small girl. "Neptune..." Her eyes burst into tears as Neptune didn't respond.

"NEPTUNE!" She screamed to the heavens in anguish.

The End..?

* * *

Insert "Drastic My Soul" from the anime s-CRY-ed here.

Yes, I just did that.


	102. Eruption

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

This is a long chapter.

* * *

Chapter 91

Time seemed to stop upon Nepgear screaming that name.

Chrome, who, along with Cave, had just made it to the Basilicom grounds in time to see Purple Heart get stabbed and kicked to the ground, stared in absolute horror. "No..." Beside her, Cave could only look on grimly.

Memories of when she had met Neptune, when Neptune had called Filyn a villain, when Neptune had fought against White Void, when Neptune had bowed and begged the citizens of Lowee to allow her to help Rom and Ram, when she had saved Peashy and fought against Green Void, when the two of them spent time together, when Chrome had promised to help Neptune, when they went swimming, when Neptune had gone to fight against Dark Black, when they sent Steamax on a failed mission all rushed through her head in a jumbled mess. Looking up, she saw Purple Nightmare hovering there and before she knew it, her legs were moving, as wires appeared from her left hand and in her right hand, her mace appeared as she snarled and snapped her left hand forward and her wires wrapped around one of the metal tentacle arms and allowed her to be pulled up into the air after Purple Nightmare. "DAAAAAAMN YOU!"

Purple Nightmare turned to look as Chrome launched herself forward at her. "Pitiful." She narrowed her eyes and pointed her tentacle heads at Chrome, firing blasts at the enraged woman. "Just who is she to you? Hmm?"

Chrome snarled and used her staff to block the attacks, but even though the energy was diffused and stopped by her mace, the kinetic forces was enough to stop her ascent and force her back to the ground. "Dammit."

Purple Nightmare chuckled and took shots at Chrome. "I think I'll just have some fun with you. After all," she grinned at Chrome, "you can't fly."

"Don't underestimate me." Chrome snarled as she flipped and landed on her feet. "I won't let you leave here alive."

Purple Nightmare just smirked at Chrome. "Bring it, bitch."

(-)

Meanwhile...

"Ku ku ku ku..." Trick, despite the dents, broken horns and other parts of his body that were damaged, laughed as he had both Peashy and Filyn with his tongue. "Finally got you both. That spear in my butt wasn't nice and you're really strong blondie." Both of the were covered in fluids of some sort and struggling to get free. "But I'll forgive you, I just love little cuties after all," he then brought them close enough that he could touch them with his hands. Reaching forward, he squeezed their butts and let out a perverse laugh. "I love how you taste, it's so sweet! Your cries when you climax is so delicious! Your skin is so soft and squeezable! And your pure skin isn't marred by big boobs!"

"Stop!" Peashy yelled as she squirmed while Trick not only squeezed but rubbed and fondled her butt. "Let Pea go!" She struggled and tried to get free, but the tongue that was wrapping her up was a lot stronger than it looked, plus she couldn't move at all, outside of kicking her feet.

"Hmm... No." Trick laughed at the bound girls. "I'm going to stuff you full and give you a special surprise." He chuckled perversely at the idea.

"Dammit!" Filyn cried out as she tried to get free. "Stop doing stuff to us!"

"Ku ku ku ku ku..." Trick laughed at her. "Don't worry, you'll be inside me and feel the same things together." He chuckled some more. "Hmm, now, should I use the studded ones or not?"

Peashy panted and realized that part of his tongue was right next to her cheek. "GRR!" Growling, she opened her mouth and lunged, as best she could, at his tongue, biting down hard enough to break concrete if it was in front of her.

Suddenly Trick chuckled at Peashy. "Nice try, but my tongue won't break that easily and even so, I only feel what I want to feel from it."

Filyn growled as she felt Trick touching her again. "Stop that and let me go!" The way he was touching her was just disgusting.

"Hmm?" Trick tilted his head. "Now why would I do that? I told you that I would make you feel adult pleasure before ending your lives."

Filyn shivered and tried to look back at Trick. "Um, can I ask you something?"

"What is it, my little cutie?" Trick asked in what could only be described as a disgusting voice.

"How is your sense of smell?"

"Extremely good!" Trick laughed. "Why, I can smell when little cuties are getting out of the shower fifty meters away."

"Good to know." Filyn said as she closed her eyes. "Too bad for you."

"Too bad for me?" Trick was confused. "What do you..."

A low, loud sound was Trick's only warning before his eyes started to water up and he dropped both Filyn and Peashy to the ground. "OH MY GOD! IT SMELLS LIKE A DEAD SKUNK!" Trick screamed and bounced around as he tried to rub at his nose. "WHY DIDN'T I TURN OFF MY SENSE OF SMELL?!"

Filyn was blushing hard as she and Peashy both got up. "I really don't want people to know that I had to fart to get out of being captured."

While Trick was scratching at his face to try and get the smell to go away, both Filyn and Peashy were about to run away when they heard an anguished scream fill the air. Turning, both of them went pale as they saw a large screen showing Purple Heart flop to the ground and revert back into Neptune.

"What..." Filyn's question was cut off as the screen suddenly split and showed what Purple Nightmare did to Purple Heart.

"N...No..." Peashy's eyes started to water as she saw that. "N...Neptuna..." She whimpered.

Filyn grimaced and looked at Trick, who was rushing for the river to dunk his head in to get rid of the stench. She grabbed Peashy and tried to get her to move. "Come on! I know it sucks! But we'll die too if he recovers."

"Why?" Peashy asked softly. "Without Neptuna... Why live?"

"Dammit!" Filyn cursed as she grabbed Peashy and dragged her away as best she could.

(-)

At the park...

Hopping over a flame whip that tried to take her legs out, MAGES. lashed out with a kick that hit Ram in the jaw, sending her flying back. MAGES. threw up a barrier as several powerful bolts of lightning descended on her from multiple directions. "Not bad, kiddos." MAGES. looked on in approval. "Reflect!" The attack was suddenly blasted back and the blue-haired magic user was amused as Rom stood still as the attack went past her and destroyed several trees. "Man, this is going to be a pain to clean up later, isn't it?" She asked rhetorically.

Ram got up and ran the back of her hand over her mouth. "That hurt." She pouted as MAGES. held up a ball of magical energy, jumped into the air and lobbed it at Rom, who created a barrier to block the attack, which was so strong that Rom was blasted backwards and landed not far from where Ram was.

"This really is fun." MAGES. smiled at them. "I'd love to..."

When a yell of pain, shock and sadness ripped through the air that caused all three of them to stop as they turned to look at the source of the scream.

"Big... Sis..?" Ram said slowly as she paled while seeing Neptune laying on the ground motionless.

"What..." Rom's eyes instantly started to tear up as the screen went split-screen to show Purple Nightmare stabbing Purple Heart in the spine from behind before kicking her off of that blade. "BIG SIS!"

"Well, that sucks." MAGES. commented idly and ignored the glares she got from Rom and Ram. "Even if she survived that, by the time you get to her, she'll be long dead."

"SHUT UP!" Rom yelled at MAGES.. "What do you know?"

The magic user shrugged and tapped her chin. "Hmm, I do know that I'm supposed to fight you." Her rings started to glow as she grinned and rushed at the twins at speeds they couldn't keep up with. The next thing that either of them knew, MAGES. had her hands on their shoulders as the three disappeared from the park.

(-)

Back at the Basilicom grounds, Purple Nightmare frowned as she saw MAGES. appear near her fallen doppelganger with the twin girls. "What are you doing, MAGES.?"

MAGES. looked around in confusion as she let go of the twins and then back flipped several times to get away from them. "Wait a moment!" She yelled when she landed in-between the twins and Purple Nightmare. "This isn't what I was trying to do! I was trying to cast a low-grade explosion spell and accidentally ended up teleporting here?"

Purple Nightmare rolled her eyes. "No one's buying that for a moment, ya loon."

MAGES. just smiled and rubbed the back of her head while giggling. "It was worth a shot." When Purple Nightmare didn't say anything, she grimaced while pulling the hand that was rubbing her head back around to cough into a fist. "You said that I had to fight them, you didn't say where I had to fight them." She looked at Rom and Ram as they ran to Neptune and sighed. "I apologize, my lady, but I couldn't keep them from their big sister while she's dying."

Purple Nightmare crossed her arms over her chest and huffed. "I don't get the big deal. I killed my big sister and you don't see _me_ crying about it."

MAGES. screwed her eyes shut and a forced smile came to her face. "Of course not. But please, let them say goodbye to her."

"FINE!" Purple Nightmare huffed in anger and annoyance.

"Big sis..." Ram shook Neptune's unmoving body. "You... You can't..."

"I'm sorry." Cave said as she walked up to the obviously distraught girls. "I truly had nothing against her."

"Heal!" Rom yelled out as she tried to stop Neptune from bleeding anymore while her tears fell freely from her eyes. "You can't die! Big sis! No!"

There was a ringing sound that caught everyone by surprise and Nepgear reacted first by reaching a trembling hand into Neptune's right pocket and pulled out a phone. "Hello?" She asked as she put the phone to her ear.

_"Huh? It's Gearsy huh?"_

"Uh..." Nepgear blinked in confusion. "I'm sorry, who's this?"

_"Did Nepsy not tell you about me?"_ The voice sounded very disappointed at that. _"My name's Uzume Tennouboushi. Anyway, is Nepsy there? I need to talk to her."_

Suddenly Nepgear burst out crying. "I...If you mean Neptune... Then she can't answer, she can't talk, she's hurting and dying and..."

_"WHAT DO YOU MEAN NEPSY'S IN TROUBLE?!"_

"She got stabbed by a sword and she's not responding and we're trying to heal her but nothing's working and she's dying because she saved me and..."

Suddenly there was the sound of someone taking the phone and a new person spoke up. _"What's going on?"_

"Huh?" Nepgear jerked in surprise. "You sound like..."

_"My name's Nepgear, I'm guessing you're the me of that world. Where's Neptune?"_

"She's hurting and I don't know what to do!"

_"WHAT?!"_ Nepgear's voice was loud enough that the Nepgear in Gamworld had to pull the phone away from her ear.

(-)

In Gamindustri...

"Neptune's hurting..?" Nepgear looked at Uzume, who was looking rather pale. "How bad?"

"That Gearsy said that Nepsy was stabbed by a sword and is dying and Uzume is going to cry because Crosy isn't willing to help and Uzume doesn't want to lose my friend!" Uzume started babbling, her real personality breaking through as she became distraught.

Histoire had a crestfallen look on her face. "Neptune..." She whispered. That lasted all of three seconds as she looked at where Croire was floating there, looking somewhat bothered by what was just said, but otherwise wasn't reacting. The next thing anyone knew, Histoire was in front of Croire and grabbing the dark-skinned fairy by her shirt and lifting her up. "Listen here." The tone in her voice had everyone in the room staring in silence at the blonde fairy. If that didn't have everyone pausing in shock, the look of sheer rage on Histoire's face would have. "I don't care what you need, you will open a portal to that world and you will get us there now!"

"I don't have the energy for that!" Croire shot back as she waved her armed up and down to try and get Histoire to back off. "Not for another two hours. The best I can do is open a small portal, but if one of you want to risk getting your fat butts stuck when you try to jump through, be my guest. Word of advice, it's not a good idea, you'll be torn apart when the portal closes."

Uzume suddenly pulled out a small cloth bag. "Then open a portal to that world! Uzume has something that will help Nepsy out really good! But hurry!"

"Fine! Fine!" Croire snapped and a portal appeared in front of Uzume. "I can feel where the idiot is, but there's no guarantee that the portal will be next to her. So..."

Uzume didn't even question it as she threw the bag through the portal, which closed shortly thereafter. "Nepsy..." She sighed and looked at Nepgear. "Have the other Gearsy give that to Nepsy and she'll be okay."

Nepgear nodded and spoke to the phone again. "Are you still there, other me?"

(-)

In Gamworld...

"Yes." Nepgear nodded. "Okay, so a portal should..." There was a weird sound filling the air and she, Cave, Rom and Ram all looked up as a black portal appeared in the sky and a bag fell through it. "Hey, a bag just fell out of a portal, is that it?"

"Yes, Uzume says that'll help Neptune..." The phone cut off as the connection died at that moment.

Nepgear nodded and watched as the bag fell closer to her.

A moment later the bag exploded and several glittering gems scattered from the explosion.

"What?" Nepgear stared in horror.

"Ooops!" Purple Nightmare smirked as one of her tentacle limbs had its laser cannon pointing at where the bag used to be.

"Damn you!" Chrome growled from where she was on the ground. No matter how much she tried to get close to Purple Nightmare, the blasted evil CPU kept staying just out of her reach while blasting at her to keep her at a distance. "If only I could transform."

At that moment something hit her in the temple and dropped onto the grass in front of her. Looking down, she saw a crystal of some sort and she bent down to pick it up. "It feels really warm..."

"Why?" Nepgear asked and looked at Purple Nightmare. "Why are you... Why did you try to hurt me?"

"You want to know the truth?" Purple Nightmare asked, chuckling. "You wouldn't be able to handle the truth."

Before Nepgear could ask something dropped on her head and she reached up to grab it and was shocked by how warm it was. Behind her, both Rom and Ram found a similar crystal in their hands.

"What is this?" Nepgear asked as she looked at it in awe.

(-)

Meanwhile...

Filyn and Peashy stumbled away as Trick finally cleared his head of the stink. "Come on, Peashy." Filyn tried to pull the distraught girl along. "You know that Neptune wouldn't, oww!" She yelped as something hit her in the forehead while something else bounced off of Peashy's head and into the girl's open hands. "What's this?" Filyn asked as she grabbed the crystal, her eye widened as she felt warmth that she had never felt before, but it felt so... Good.

"It feels like Neptuna..." Peashy muttered softly and hugged the crystal while it started to glow yellow.

"Yeah, it does." Filyn nodded as her crystal glowed a bright red.

(-)

In another part of Planeptune...

Uni grimaced as she fired her handguns and all she heard was a click. "Dammit." Running out of exploding bullets wasn't a good thing. Her only energy attack was her rifle and the energy beam just bounced off of Judge's body. "I need more power..."

_"Why do you want more power?"_ A voice that she had never heard whispered into her ear.

Seeing Steamax take on Judge, she balled her hand into a fist. "To protect my people. To protect Steamax. To make sure that I can handle disasters in the future." The voice chuckled softly and Uni's eyes widened as she saw a ball of red, swirling and pulsating energy in front of her. "That's..."

_"Take it."_ The voice whispered to her. _"This is the power that will give you everything you need."_ Uni blinked as a girl with blue hair and cold eyes appeared before her. She couldn't see the rest of the girl's body, but next to her was the swirling ball of energy.

"I..." Uni hesitated to reach for it. "This is..."

_"You desire power, right?"_ The girl smiled at her. _"This will give you everything you want."_

Uni reached for it, knowing that the girl was right. "Yes, this is..." She trailed off and her pupils shrank as she thought she saw Noire standing in the ball of energy, giving her a sad look.

_"What's wrong?"_ The blue haired girl asked her. _"Isn't this what you want?"_

"Yes, it..."

Before Uni could say anything more, a small object hit her in the chest and she caught it by reflex. "What's this?" She didn't know what it was, but there was a warmth to it that was pushing against the red ball of energy, washing it away. For a brief moment, she thought she saw Noire's smiling face and her eyes teared up as she knew that she made the right choice in picking the crystal up.

Steamax groaned as he was knocked away from Judge again and collapsed to the ground. "I apologize, Lady Uni, but I can't keep fighting like this."

"Steamax!" Uni screamed as the gem in her hands started to glow. She looked at the glowing gem in her hands and then at Judge and growled. "I don't care... If this can give me the power I need, then... Let me ACCESS IT!" She screamed as she was consumed in a white light.

(-)

Near the river...

"This is..." Peashy stared at the glowing rock as she felt a tingling sensation through her that was pleasant and nice. "I feel like I can get... I can get stronger!"

Filyn nodded as the glow got extremely bright. "Yes, same here."

When both of them were engulfed in a white light, Trick had to take a step back in surprise.

(-)

Back at the Basilicom...

Nepgear looked at the crystal as it started to glow. "What is this?"

"Sharicite?" Histoire's voice was heard and everyone stopped to look around. "That's concentrated Share energy."

"Yeah, it is." Chrome nodded as she smiled. "Rom! Ram! Nepgear! Focus on the warmth and let it consume you. Don't be afraid! You'll get your true power this way."

Nepgear glared at Purple Nightmare. "Tell me something! Tell me! Neptune! Why did you try to kill me?! I thought you didn't want me to become a Void!"

Purple Nightmare sighed. "Fine! You want to know?" She swung her arm out to the side. "It's true! I don't want you to become a Void. But that's not because I love you or something stupid like that." Everyone, including Cave, MAGES., Mina and the rest of the people with Mina looked at the transformed Void CPU, who smirked at her. "It's because your face is so cute! Because your body is so sexy! If you became a Void, I'd have to kill you and that would rob me of all the fun, sexy times we've shared together. You're so cute when you orgasm too."

Nepgear was blushing hard as she heard that. "Is... Is that true? You never loved me?"

Purple Nightmare laughed at her. "Of course not! I was planning on killing all the Voids in this world eventually anyway with this sword I have here." She sneered at Nepgear. "In fact, after I killed the Voids, I would have killed all the people of their nations so no more CPUs could be born, before returning to this nation and killing everyone here, including you, before taking my own life and allowing this godforsaken world to sink into the abyss."

"...Even me?" Mina asked softly. "YOU WERE GOING TO KILL ME TOO?!"

"Of course!" Purple Nightmare turned to look at her. "A failed clone sister? What use do I have for you."

On the ground, Chrome looked at Cave, who was staring in horror and shock, and then at MAGES., who was flabbergasted by what she was hearing. "Cave! I told you that you would discover the truth if you came with me. Now you know!" She looked at Cave. "What's your answer now? Who are you loyal to?!"

Cave closed her eyes. "I'm loyal to the CPU of Planeptune." Everyone stared at her in shock as Cave opened her eyes and gave Purple Nightmare a strong glare. "And the CPU of Planeptune is currently laying on the ground and is badly hurt because of this fake."

Chrome smiled. "Good answer. Rom! Ram! Nepgear! Feel the power and yell out... ACCESS!" She was engulfed in white light and the three CPU Candidates looked at each other and nodded.

"ACCESS!" They yelled at the same time as they were engulfed in the white light.

"What the hell?!" Purple Nightmare stared in shock as the light show ended and the four were transformed.

"Now the real fight begins." Chrome Heart glared at Purple Nightmare.

To be continued...

* * *

...What? Did you think the story was going to end in the last chapter?

Also... Round Two, FIGHT!


	103. Darkness Sisters

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 92

When the light show ended, Trick gawked at the changes that Peashy and Filyn had undergone.

Where Filyn had been standing was a tall, young woman with an eye-patch over her left eye, her vermilion colored hair was done up in twin pig-tails and so long that they almost went to her feet. Her hair was kept in place by two spiky hair clips and her arms were covered by black sleeves that went from the bottom of her shoulders to her hands and were connected to finger-less gloves. Her feet had black boots on and her legs were covered by what looked like black leggings from her feet to her knees. Her large breasts held in place by a black bikini that left the inner portions of her breasts revealed, her hips and crotch were covered by a bikini bottom and there was a red and black mesh that went from her chest to her hips, being partially transparent, but still covering her skin. She let out a smile as she held her fingers up to her lips, revealing that they were sharp as her visible, amber colored eye had a white power symbol in it.

Where Peashy had been standing was a young woman who was about twenty centimeters shorter than the woman Filyn had transformed into with long blonde hair that reached past her shoulders, orange eyes with gray power symbols in them, a black choker around her neck with black sleeves that covered her hands up to just under her shoulders, on her feet was a pair of black boots that covered her legs up to her knees and there were very long stockings that went half-way up her thighs. Her hips were covered by a bikini bottom that fully covered her rear end and crotch. Her sides were covered by a pitch black covering that went up to a top that wrapped around her body, just under her breasts and reached up to cover the ends of her breasts.

However, none of this mattered to Trick. His attention was drawn to the fact that both girls, who had been small cuties a few moments ago, now had very large breasts. The woman that replaced the redheaded little girl had to have large F-cup breasts, which was a shock in and of itself, but the blonde...

Her boobs were even bigger!

"W-wh-whaaaaat?!" Trick stuttered as he stumbled backwards. "What happened to my cuties?!"

Chuckling in an almost sinister manner, Filyn smirked at Trick. "We're right here. Ooooh, don't you like CPUs who attain the ability to transform?"

"Filyn?!" The blonde next to her gawked. "Is that you?!"

"Indeed... Hmm, I do believe that CPUs tend to have different names in HDD, huh?" She tapped her chin a couple of times before her name suddenly came to her. "Ah," she nodded. "My name is Vermilion Heart."

"Oooh!" The blonde suddenly perked up. "My name's Darkness Sister Yellow!"

Vermilion Heart sweat-dropped heavily. "That's a mouthful."

Darkness Sister Yellow pouted at her. "Not fair, Filyn! It's not like I picked my name! It was like it was already in my head or something."

Vermilion Heart chuckled at her. "How about we call you Darkness Yellow for short then?"

Darkness Yellow tilted her head and nodded. "Yay! Thanks, Filyn!" She suddenly jumped and hugged Vermilion Heart tightly, pressing their large breasts against each other. "That's great! Though I'm not a full CPU yet." She let go of Vermilion Heart, who gasped from the exuberant hug. "Sorry."

"It's fine." Vermilion Heart shook her head as she tried to get her breath back. "Well, that's why you're not Yellow Heart or something." She looked at Darkness Yellow's chest and noticed something. "Hey, you don't have a hole in your chest."

"Huh?" Darkness Yellow patted her chest right where she would have a hole if she was a Void. "I guess I don't."

Vermilion Heart tilted her head in confusion. "Wait, you're actually talking like a normal person. Then again..." She trailed off and cupped her chin with her left hand. "Neptune certainly changes a lot when she transforms, so maybe it's the same thing here and..."

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT?!" Trick suddenly screamed, causing Vermilion Heart and Darkness Yellow to turn to look at him as his yellow body was now red while he swung his arms up and down while throwing an obvious tantrum. "MY TWO DELICIOUS LOOKING CUTIES REPLACED WITH UGLY, FAT... BOOBS?!"

Both Vermilion Heart and Darkness Yellow twitched in anger. "Want to repeat that?" Vermilion Heart growled out as her fingers twitched.

"GAAAAAH!" Trick screamed so loudly that both CPUs had to cover their ears. "THAT'S IT! I'M GOING TO KILL BOTH OF YOU! THEN I'M GOING TO GO INTO THE CITY AND KILL EVERYONE I COME ACROSS WHILE RAPING EVERY LITTLE GIRL AND THEN I'LL EAT THEM UNTIL I'M SATISFIED!"

"...Wait..." Darkness Yellow stared at him, her face showing horror and disgust. "The reason that magic girl had us fight him... And allowed him to touch and do stuff to us..."

"Is because he would have freaked out and hurt more people if he fought anyone with boobs?!" Vermilion Heart snarled. "Peashy... Let's kill him." A scythe with a crimson-colored blade appeared in her hands.

"Right!" Darkness Yellow nodded as large gauntlets formed over her arms with four claw blades coming from the top of the gauntlet. "Mind if I go first?"

Vermilion Heart smirked and rested her scythe on her shoulders. "Sure, but leave a little for me, after he played with my body, I want to make him suffer."

"No promises." Darkness Yellow grinned and rushed at Trick, who lashed out with his tongue. "Not this time!" She yelled and jumped over the tongue before slashing down and cutting the tongue in half. "Wow! These blades are really sharp!"

"MY TONGUE!" Trick screamed as his tongue fell down. "How dare you?! How will I taste the sweet nectar of little girls when I make them orgasm?!"

"Gross." Vermilion Heart muttered and rushed in, swinging her scythe when she got close and chopping his left arm off. "That's for touching my crotch, you freak."

"NO! MY ALONE TIME HAND!" Trick screamed in dismay.

"SHUT UP!" Both CPUs said at the same time as Darkness Yellow used both arms to slash down at Trick's large belly, cutting it open and revealing an internal room with all sorts of sexual toys inside.

Vermilion Heart got behind Trick and, with her scythe held up high, slashed through his torso, cutting him in half and causing him to scream in pain as his upper body was split from his lower half.

"Is... Is this how I die?" Trick whimpered pathetically. "I didn't even get to stuff a CPU cutie yet."

The last thing Trick ever saw was a claw cutting through his head, severing into pieces.

"You know, someone might be able to rebuild him." Darkness Yellow commented before jumping away from Trick's body.

A moment later, a scythe slashed through both the upper body pieces and the lower body of Trick, which was accompanied by an explosion. "You were saying?" Vermilion Heart smirked as she saw nothing but melted circuitry and metal left behind.

"We need to get going and get to Neptuna!" Darkness Yellow yelled as yellow, jagged wings formed on her back.

"Still calling her that, huh?" Vermilion Heart chuckled as eight wings, four on each side of her back, formed and the two CPUs took off into the and after taking a moment to figure out where everyone was, they took off for the central square, as that was where they had been before.

"Hang on, Neptuna..." Darkness Yellow muttered, hoping that they could get there in time.

(-)

At the courtyard...

"Lady... Uni?" Steamax stared in awe as he saw what she had transformed into. "You've achieved HDD?" The primary color of her outfit was black, but there was lots of purple in it. Her hair had changed from black to white and her half-tail hair style had become twin spiral drills instead, there was a single hair clip on each side of her head that was large and looked like a dagger pointing up. Her eyes were bright green with a gray colored power symbol in them.

That wasn't what Steamax was focusing on though. "That... That's very lewd, Lady Uni!"

"Huh?" The transformed Uni looked down at herself and her face turned bright red as she realized that her HDD outfit was... Quite revealing. Her chest was completely exposed, save for a strip of her processor that covered her breasts, which Uni noticed, to her annoyance, had gotten smaller. Her stomach and sides were covered by a purple mesh and her crotch... Well, she couldn't see that, but she could tell that it was just a strip that covered her naughty bits, ran between her legs and covered the area between her butt cheeks. Her arms were covered by sleeves that wouldn't look out of place on Purple Heart, though her shoulders were completely bare and on her feet were stiletto shoes, which made her stand with her hips slightly up and protruding backwards. Her legs from her feet to half way up her thighs were covered in armor.

Coming out of her tailbone area was a long, inter-locking tail that ended with a large, spearhead-like tip. In fact, the tail was so long that it could wrap around her twice.

"GAH! Why am I showing so much skin?!" The transformed Uni yelled and felt her body over and her blush increased as she realized that her butt was completely on display. "No fair!"

"WHAT THE HELL!?" Judge yelled in frustration. "YOU'RE A FREAKING CPU?!"

"That's right." She nodded at him. "And I..." She paused as new information seemingly appeared in her head for no reason. "Huh, so my name's Darkness Sister Black, huh?" She grinned at that. "I like it."

"So you changed your name, stripped out of your clothes and for what?!" Judge yelled at her. "I'll crush you right here and now!"

"No, you won't." Darkness Sister Black narrowed her eyes at him as her tail seemingly opened up like a mouth and a laser cannon was revealed underneath as she fired a blast at Judge, who held up his left hand to block it.

"That won't, GAH!" He screamed as the blast not only wasn't blocked, but it broke through his hand, leaving a hole where the attack hit. "IMPOSSIBLE!"

"Oooooh!" Darkness Sister Black giggled in delight. "Auto-piercing, huh?" She looked at her tail and at her hands and she grinned. "So this is what a CPU feels like, huh?" She balled her hands into fists and smirked at Judge. "This is it! This is the power I've needed for so long."

"I'LL CRUSH YOU!" Judge yelled in anger as he swung his weapon to the side. "I'LL MAKE SURE THAT NOTHING IS LEFT OF YOU WHEN I'M FINISHED WITH YOU!"

"Steamax," Darkness Sister Black said as she formed an energy rifle in both hands. "You said you had something that could deal with him?"

"Yes," Steamax nodded, "but I couldn't use it if you couldn't deliver the final blow."

"That's what I want to hear." Darkness Sister Black smirked as purple wings with black undersides formed on her back. "I'll get him from the air! Set me up!"

"Of course, Lady Uni!" Steamax suddenly jumped back a couple of times and landed in a three point stance with his right arm behind his back. "Allow me to show you why I was chosen to be Lady Uni's bodyguard!"

"Huh?!" Judge looked at Steamax, who was rapidly swinging his arms forward and reaching behind him so fast that his arms were a blur. "What is, GAAAAAH!" Judge screamed as hundreds of small throwing stars slammed into his body, cutting into him and cracking his armor. "IMPOSSIBLE! I AM INVINCIBLE!"

"No one's invincible." Darkness Sister Black said from the air. "Not even my invincible older sister." She whispered as tears formed in her eyes. "Noire, I'm sorry that I didn't have this power earlier. I wish I did." She connected the rifles together and pointed the twin barreled cannon at Judge. "So I'll make it up to you by making sure that no one else has to suffer!" She pulled on the trigger as energy built up in the combined rifle. "EAT THIS!" She screamed and fired a blast so large that it engulfed Judge.

"NOOOOO!" He screamed in despair as his weapon shattered, followed by his arms and finally his head while his body melted from the attack.

"Impressive, Lady Uni." Steamax told her as Darkness Sister Black landed on the ground, her face slightly red. "...Are you okay?"

"I'm fine that we won, but..." Darkness Sister Black's eye was twitching in annoyance as she held her arms down, her guns in each hand. "WHAT'S WITH THIS OUTFIT?!"

"Ah..." Steamax scratched his cheek while Darkness Sister Black looked over herself. "It is very flattering and..." He paused while looking at her chest. "That's interesting."

"What?" Darkness Sister Black looked down. "...My boobs got smaller, okay? Why do you need to stare?"

Steamax face-faulted. "Ah! My apologizes, Lady Uni, I wasn't staring at your breasts, I was seeing if you had a Void hole or not."

"Oh." Darkness Sister Black blushed hard. "Um... Forget I said anything and we need to hurry to Neptune's side."

"Right." Steamax nodded and he tilted his head as she walked up to him. "Um..."

"Grab on." She huffed and held her hand out. "I can fly us there faster than you running."

"I won't get tired, if that's what you're worried about," Steamax told her, "besides, if things are bad, you will need both of your hands."

Darkness Sister Black nodded and floated upwards to look around before nodding. "Alright. Then follow me!" She proclaimed and flew off in a direction. "The Basilicom and the Central Square should be that way."

"Yes." Steamax nodded and jumped into the air to follow after Uni.

It didn't take him long to realize that, even if unintentional, he was getting a very good look at Darkness Sister Black's bare butt.

It was a very pleasing sight, even if very distracting.

(-)

At the Basilicom grounds...

"What the hell?!" Purple Nightmare stared in shock as the light show ended and the four were transformed.

"Now the real fight begins." Chrome Heart glared at Purple Nightmare. She looked at the mace in her hands and felt the power flowing through her. "One more time, huh?" She smiled and her cerulean eyes gleamed with determination.

Where Nepgear had been was a transformed CPU that glared up at Purple Nightmare. Her arms were covered by gloves that went from her fingertips up to just shy of her shoulders, on her feet were armored boots and leggings that went half-way up her thighs while her crotch was only covered by a V-shaped article of clothing that didn't even wrap around her hips fully. Her backside was similarly covered, leaving most of her butt-cheeks and butt-crack fully visible. Her breasts were covered by a bikini top and around her neck was a black choker with a purple gem in the center. On her back were six jagged, purple wings and hovering over her shoulders were six more jagged, purple wings. What was most shocking about her was that under her arms were two large, clawed mechanical hands with four pointed claws on the bottom and three on top with large rollers between them to help them open and close. "Goodness, this is me?" She gasped in surprise.

"Wow!" Ram looked at herself. Her legs were covered by leggings from her feet up to her thighs, her feet had black boots on them with a red trim, her arms had black gloves with pink trim that covered her arms up to her elbows. Her hair was short and pink in color while having the left side of her hair being long and over her shoulder. Her eyes were blue and she had a tiny bikini covering her chest and bottom. A small tail was coming out of her back, though it had a heart-shaped paddle near the end with a sharp spike at the end. The power symbol in her eyes was gray in color. "I feel so strong!" Two wings formed on her back, looking almost mechanical in design with the wings being pink while the tops that connected the wings to her back was black. There were black and red headphones over her ears. "But why am I almost naked?!"

"I dunno," Rom said as she looked at herself. Like Ram, her arms and legs were covered by black coverings with pink trim, though Rom had more covering on her body as her body suit covered her chest, breasts, hips, butt, sides and abdomen with a black mesh with pink trim. She idly wondered if it was see-through or not. Her hair was similar to Ram's hair, though it was blue in color and her hair got long on her right side. Her eyes were bright red in color with a gray power symbol on them. "But... This is cool." Four diamond-shaped wings with pink edges formed on her back. She looked down at Neptune and quickly knelt down. "Hang on, big sis!" She held her hands in front of her as a dome covered Neptune. "Healing field! Regeneration! Recovery!" Each spell caused the dome to glow different colors. She gritted her teeth. "I won't let you die, big sis!"

"Here." A voice she didn't expect to speak up caused her to look at MAGES. in surprise as the blue-haired girl knelt down next to Neptune and cast a few spells as well. "What?"

"...I thought you were a bad guy?"

MAGES. smirked at her. "Good guys, bad guys, it doesn't matter to me. I'm a Knight of the CPU of Planeptune." She looked at Neptune. "And I won't let her die." She looked at Purple Nightmare and then back at Rom. "So what should I call you like this?"

"...Darkness Sister White." Rom nodded as the information came to her.

"Huh?" Ram looked at Rom in confusion. "But my name's Darkness Sister White as well!"

"That'll be confusing." MAGES. chuckled. "Blue and Pink. Based on your hair colors." They looked at her and nodded. "Now get in there and kick some ass." The twins nodded and flew up to where Nepgear and Chrome Heart were at. While they were flying up there, she looked at Neptune and bit her lip. "Come on, I really don't want you to die on me." If Purple Nightmare really did plan to kill everyone off, it would be better to have this Neptune survive than the CPU she had been serving for so long.

"And what are you called?" Purple Nightmare looked at her younger sister. "Our CPU names are known to us the instant we transform, so..."

"Darkness Sister Purple." The newly transformed CPU glared at Purple Nightmare as the Lowee CPU Candidates floated up. "I don't know why I'm called that..."

"Because you need to go through the ritual." Chrome Heart told her. "I was known as Silver Sister until I went through the ritual to become a full CPU. It's not uncommon. Sometimes a CPU becomes a fully realized Heart when they first transform, other times they need to do the ritual to fully become a CPU."

Purple Nightmare looked at MAGES. and narrowed her eyes as her sword glowed. "Die!" She yelled and launched a wave of energy at the distracted magic user. "Those who betray me deserve death!"

A sudden barrier stopped her attack cold, causing everyone to jerk in surprise.

"Don't bother!" Darkness Sister Pink yelled at Purple Nightmare as the heart at the end of her tail glowed pink.

Mina waled up to MAGES., "Let me help, please?" MAGES. nodded and Mina looked at what MAGES. was doing and her hair turned pink as she assisted in the healing magic.

"Well then..." Chrome Heart smirked at Purple Nightmare. "Care to face down four CPUs?"

Growling as her tentacle arms spread out, forcing the three CPU Candidates and Chrome to scatter to not be easy targets, Purple Nightmare started to glow. "Fine! I'll kill you four first and then I'll kill those insubordinate little shits!"

The air became tense as the divine beings faced down each other with each side having the intent of fully ending the other one's lives.

To be continued...

* * *

So, should I go with Darkness Sister [Color] or change it to Darkness [Color]?


	104. Continue Screen

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 93

"Where..." A soft, female voice breathed out. "Am I?" The area was white and swirly though she noticed that there was a black splotch in the distance that was growing larger.

"Hey, Nepsy." Someone answered her and she blinked as a woman with long, blue hair, purple eyes and a rather... Sad expression stood over her, but upside down. "You're dead."

"Dead?" Neptune breathed out slowly. "Huh? Kur...Ome? What?"

Kurome disappeared before appearing sideways and some distance away. "The other you," her voice had an echo to it that Neptune couldn't place, "stabbed you with a sword that was designed for killing Divine Beings. You died."

"I... Died..." She sighed and closed her eyes. "Sorry, Histy, Nepgear... Chrome..."

"Okay, I lied." Kurome smirked as Neptune suddenly snapped her eyes open and Kurome disappeared before appearing at Neptune's feet. "You're not quite dead yet, but you're rapidly approaching death's door." She pointed at the black splotch, which was growing even bigger. "As soon as you sink through that, you're dead forever."

"Death's not so scary." Neptune said softly as she felt herself being pulled towards it. "I've been dead before."

"Anyway, those foolish CPU Candidates, the ones from Lowee..." Kurome muttered as she appeared above Neptune in a position that let Neptune see up her skirt. "They're using as many healing spells on your body to keep it alive, but it doesn't matter." Kurome stopped and raised an eyebrow as Neptune was focused on her skirt. "Here." She stood up and hiked up her skirt, revealing that she was wearing deep blue panties. "Satisfied?"

"Yes." Neptune giggled. "At least now I can die knowing what kind of panties spirits wear."

"Idiot, you're only mostly dead." Kurome let go of her skirt, reached forward and flicked Neptune on the forehead. "I can send you back." Neptune gave her a confused look and she sighed. "The sword, Gehaburn, is designed to automatically kill divine beings, but this one was designed with Voids in mind, not Hearts."

"So that's why I'm still not completely dead?" Neptune asked and Kurome nodded. "Um... I don't have any coins."

Kurome gave Neptune a confused look and tilted her head. "Huh?"

"Or do I need tokens?" Neptune asked and looked around. "Is there a token dispenser around here?"

Kurome face-palmed as she realized what Neptune was talking about. "This isn't one of those "insert coins to continue" screens, you moron!" Neptune giggled and stuck her tongue out. "Listen, you have a choice." Neptune tilted her head as Kurome smiled at her. "You can fall into the darkness and disappear from the world forever and who knows what the other you will do to poor little Gearsy..."

"Or?"

"Or I help you and you return to the land of the living." Kurome gave Neptune a cool smile as the other CPU stared at her.

(-)

Meanwhile...

"Alright," Purple Nightmare growled, "I'll..."

"ROCKET PUNCH!" Darkness Sister Purple yelled out as the large clawed hands that hovered just off her hips suddenly roared to life and launched themselves at Purple Nightmare, who used her bottom tentacle limbs to block the left one while her top tentacle limbs to try and catch the right one. The instant that her limbs touched the hands, they exploded, sending Purple Nightmare flying backwards with a grunt of pain.

"Our turn." Darkness Sister Blue said as she and her twin flew above Purple Nightmare. "Diamond..." Several crystals of ice formed around her.

"FALL!" Darkness Sister Pink cried out as the winds picked up and launched the large ice crystals at Purple Nightmare.

"You're getting too big for your panties!" Purple Nightmare roared as several swords formed around her and launched themselves at the ice shards, blasting through them and to the twins, who countered with lightning that blasted all of the blades, causing them to explode. Grimacing, the Nightmare CPU looked at her damaged mechanical arms and realized they still had some use as she swung them around and stretched them up at the twins. "I'll smash your skulls in."

"I think not." Chrome Heart said from right behind Purple Nightmare, who's eyes widened from how close Chrome Heart was. Turning her head slowly, she got a mace to the face, sending her spinning through the air until she crashed on the ground. "That felt *SO* good!"

"Don't think..." Purple Nightmare growled as she got to her feet, her tentacle limbs sparking as she glared up at the four CPUs. "That you can win this fight!" She held her sword straight up and clouds formed over-head. Her body started to glow and her eyes became dark purple as the clouds split apart and a beam of light erupted from the sword. "BLAST EVERYTHING TO DUST!"

Seeing the large pillar of energy coming their way, Chrome Heart knew that she could avoid it easily, but with Neptune and other innocent people behind them, they had to stop the attack. "Anyone got anything?"

Darkness Sister Pink's heart on her tail suddenly glowed and she smiled as an idea came to her. "Super Pink Heart BLOCK!"

Everyone gawked as a large, pink heart appeared, covering the entire area and blocking the falling energy pillar.

"...Ram..." Chrome Heart looked at the CPU Candidate who had the glowing tail. "...Did you just summon a three hundred foot wide pink heart to block an attack?" Ram nodded and the older CPU just shook her head. "Who in their right minds would summon a giant pink heart for anything?" Seeing the Candidate pout, Chrome smiled at her. "So long as it works, it doesn't matter if it's silly looking or stupid."

"Right!" Darkness Sister Pink smiled brightly.

Chrome Heart turned back to the Heart, which started to crack under the pressure from the attack. "Seriously?"

"I won't be stopped by a silly little shield like this!" Purple Nightmare screamed out as her attack shattered through the barrier. "DAMMIT!" She screamed as she saw that her attack's energy had run out.

"Do you really think you can beat us by screaming your failures out?" Chrome Heart asked as Darkness Sister Purple and Darkness Sister Blue zipped forward. "Kids..." She sighed.

"Lightning..." Darkness Sister Blue began as her hands crackled with power.

"ROCKET!" Darkness Sister Purple yelled as she fired two new Rocket Punches at Purple Nightmare, which got surrounded by lightning magic. A wall of inter-locked swords formed in front of the attack, stopping it, though the explosion did send shrapnel flying everywhere.

Purple Nightmare glared at everyone before taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out. "Fine, I guess I need to step up my game, huh?" Her body and eyes both glowed and everyone watched as her metal tentacle limbs recovered fully.

"Seriously!?" Darkness Sister Blue gaped. "How did she do that?" That almost reminded her what White Void had done to her to avoid any serious injuries when Purple Heart had fought the dead Void back in Lowee.

She mentally shivered at the thought of Purple Nightmare doing something similar to her or anyone else there, since such a thing was so painful it wasn't fun to remember.

"It's easy to do." Chrome Heart told her. "If we get out of this, I'll explain how. Right now, we need to stop her."

"Right!" The CPU Candidates all nodded.

Purple Nightmare's tentacle limbs curved back so that the heads were near her head. "Outnumbered, outgunned..." She suddenly broke into a wide grin while giggling hysterically. "But not for long."

Clapping her hands together, Darkness Sister Blue charged her magic up as lightning crashed into her combined hands. "Chrome!"

"Right!" Chrome Heart nodded as her wings glowed and she rushed forward and passed right under Rom, who let loose two arcing bolts of lightning straight down at that moment. The bolts connected with Chrome Heart's staff and, much to most people's surprise, instead of frying the CPU, the power condensed onto her mace and crackled around the CPU as she flew in. Her cerulean eyes seemed to crackle with power as she swung at Purple Nightmare, who dodged backwards. Chrome Heart simply rushed forward and swung her mace up, only to find that this time her arms were caught by wires from the lower right tentacle limb.

"What?" Purple Nightmare asked as she swung that arm upwards, dragging Chrome Heart into the air before swinging it down so hard that Chrome Heart was slammed into a crater. "You think I can't adapt to what your strategies?" Holding Gehaburn parallel to the ground, she charged up power in it. "Goodbye, you old hag!" She swung the blade forward, sending an arc of energy at Chrome Heart.

Chrome Heart almost laughed in amusement as she saw a pink heart form in front of the attack, stopping it cold. "Not sure about the outfits or tails, but I'll take what you can do anytime, Ram." A blade of wind cut through where the wires were that were holding her arms, releasing her.

"You three can attack all out," Darkness Sister Pink winked as her tail glowed, "leave defense and support to me, okay?"

Chrome Heart smirked at that as she floated up. "I certainly won't say no to that." The sensation of being in HDD and fighting, while she had gotten a small taste of it back in Eden, it was something that she had almost forgotten about in all the years since she had lost her nation. "If we had been closer all those years ago, would this world had sank into despair like it has?"

Purple Nightmare narrowed her eyes, before moving her tentacle limbs back in an arc as the heads opened up, revealing the laser cannons. "I always was better at long range." She snapped her fingers and the sky suddenly became darkened by thousands upon thousands of swords. "Sword..." Purple Nightmare raised her left hand up while her right hand held onto Gehaburn. "STORM!" She yelled and dropped her hand as swords launched themselves at the group from all angles.

Darkness Sister Pink's tail glowed as a large pink heart formed above them to block the ones coming from above. "I can't create another barrier if I have to stop this many!"

Chrome Heart filled the air with razor wires as she flexed her right hand. "That's fine! I'll get the ones on our sides! Rom!"

"Right!" Darkness Sister Blue nodded and created pillars of ice around them to intercept any blades that got through.

Darkness Sister Purple turned to look at Purple Nightmare and gasped as one of the tentacle limbs heads was inches from her face. Before she could react, it clamped down on her head. "MMMMPH!"

"What the?" Chrome Heart and Darkness Sister Blue both looked to see what happened, only to find themselves caught just like Darkness Sister Purple was. Purple Nightmare flew towards Darkness Sister Pink, who could only stare in horror as the last tentacle limb's head opened up and clamped down on her head like it did the others.

Purple Nightmare started to laugh as she snapped her fingers and the swords stopped falling. "Now, let's see..." She grinned as she looked at the four struggling CPUs while they tried to get free from their predicament. "Eenie meenie miney... Oh hell, who am I kidding?" She asked rhetorically and looked at Darkness Sister Purple. "You were able to transform, Nepgear. I'll miss your sexy body, cute moans and squeals and how you taste when I make you cum from me eating you out, but I have to kill you now." Darkness Sister Purple started screaming a muffled scream as the laser cannon that was right in front of her started to build up power. "Don't worry, it only hurts for a brief moment before your face, brains and head explode. Then you won't feel anything anymore."

Purple Nightmare clapped her hands together. "Well, that's enough of me being nice." Her eyes started to sparkle as she grinned. "Goodbye, Nepgear."

There was a hum of power as the laser continued to build up power.

"Bang." Purple Nightmare whispered.

A laser ripped through the air, bisecting the tentacle arm right behind the head and causing the laser blast to miss as the tentacle seemingly jerked upwards in pain and fired into the sky.

"WHAT?!" Purple Nightmare screamed in shock. There were more jerks from her tentacle arms as she heard the rending of metal. Looking around, she stared in shock as that blue ninja that got away saved Darkness Sister Pink while a tall woman with twin-tails and a scythe while wearing a very skimpy bikini cut Chrome Heart free and a blonde with gigantic boobs used some sort of clawed gauntlet to free Darkness Sister Blue. When a CPU with a long, inter-linked tail suddenly appeared near where Darkness Sister Purple was and freed her from the head, Purple Nightmare figured it all out. "Well, shit, all my knights are failures, huh?"

"That's right." The blonde glared at her. "By the way, thanks for filling the sky full of swords, we never would have figured out where you were if you didn't do that."

Chrome Heart stared at the CPU in front of her. With the red hair and the eye-patch, she knew who it had to be, but the fact that the physical change was so... Radical made her not want to believe it. "...Filyn, is that you?"

The redhead smirked at her. "What's the matter, Chrome? Shocked that your little sister could grow up so much?"

Chrome Heart just shook her head slowly and let out a soft laugh. "No, but I didn't expect you to change just as much as Neptune does." She looked at the blonde and tapped her chin. "That must be Peashy, so... That's Uni?" She asked while pointing to the CPU with the long tail.

"Yes." The redhead told her. "Oh, my name's Vermilion Heart, just so you know. For some reason both Peashy and Uni are Darkness Sisters."

"Ah," Chrome Heart nodded. "Lots of rituals that need to be done after this so they can all become fully realized CPUs." That is, if they managed to get through all of this. "And what's with those outfits?" She gave her sister an annoyed look. "Seriously, every single one of you is showing more skin than pole dancers."

Vermilion Heart gave Chrome Heart a curious look. "...You'll need to tell me about those sometime."

"Lady Uni," Steamax spoke up as he finished getting Darkness Sister Pink out of the metal head she was trapped in. "Everyone's free."

"Good." Darkness Sister Black spoke up. "Let's take care of this CPU then."

Purple Nightmare looked around and grimaced. 'Four was bad enough, but now there's seven of them and that ninja?' She was looking left and right as she was seemingly surrounded by the CPUs on all sides.

"Do you really think you can win now?" Chrome Heart asked Purple Nightmare. "And don't think you'll get another chance to heal your damaged limbs like before."

Purple Nightmare cursed under her breath. Even if she had Gehaburn, she knew the best she could do would be to kill one of them before being killed herself. 'I need a distraction.'

(-)

"So what's your decision, Nepsy?" Kurome smiled at her. "Going to die or go back?"

"Can I ask you something first?" Neptune looked at her curiously and Kurome nodded. "You said that the sword that stabbed me was supposed to kill CPUs, but I'm not completely dead, so why not?"

Kurome chuckled at that question. "Ah, well, I never had the original sword in my hands, it was just a legend in our world. Apparently the Deity of Sin kept coming back and that sword was used to kill her more than once in the past. Anyway, I didn't know how it worked, so I just figured it dealt near lethal damage to Divine Beings like us or the Deity of Sin and cut us off from our shares so we couldn't recover."

"That makes sense." Neptune muttered.

"So when I made it for this world, I just created it with that idea in mind." Kurome smiled at her. "Except, of course, instead of Shares, I had it cut off Fearicite energy. That answer your question?" Neptune nodded. "Any other questions?"

"...How come you didn't bring yourself back to life?" Neptune asked and Kurome sighed.

"Oh, believe me, I tried." Kurome told her. "But nope, can't do it. I can bring OTHERS back to life, but I'm stuck here. Kind of sucks, you know?" She shrugged and disappeared, reappearing some distance away, upside down and facing away from Neptune. "So then, answer my question then, Nepsy. Do you want to die or will you have me help you return to the land of the living?"

Neptune closed her eyes and her shoulders slumped. "I want to go back, but I know what will happen if I say yes." She opened her eyes and glared at Kurome. "If I say yes, you'll give me something that'll turn me into a monster and then I'll be forced to kill everyone."

Kurome chuckled softly. "Can't fool you, huh?" She disappeared and reappeared right in front of Neptune. "It doesn't matter though." She wrapped her arms around Neptune and kissed the purple-haired CPU right on the lips, much to Neptune's shock. "Sorry," Kurome whispered as she broke the kiss and let go, "been wanting to do that for some time. But the truth is, Nepsy..." She put her hand on Neptune's chest and Neptune stared in horror as a red glow emanated from Kurome's hand and into Neptune's chest. "It didn't matter if you said yes or no..." Kurome had a sad look on her face as she looked at Neptune. "The question is, how much pain will you be in when you get back to your broken body."

With a push, Kurome sent Neptune back the way she had come and far away from the dark ink. "When people say don't go for the light, ignore them, that's where your body is after all."

Neptune could barely hear Kurome as the red glow engulfed her spirit, causing her to cry out in pain.

As Neptune disappeared back to her body, Kurome slowly let out a smile. "Now we'll see something really interesting." She chuckled as she disappeared from the area.

(-)

MAGES. was the first to realize something was wrong. Mina was quick to catch on they could feel Neptune's life signs recovering. "Something's wrong." Mina muttered, "this feels..."

"Yeah, it's like..."

They both felt Neptune's body throb with power before an explosion of energy sent the two of them and Cave flying away and into nearby walls.

With a red glow covering her body and streams of energy coming off of her body, Neptune jerked upwards, as though she was pulled up by some invisible force. Flexing her fingers, she opened her eyes, which were glowing red before letting out a horrifying scream.

Said scream stopped everyone in their tracks as they turned to look at Neptune, most everyone in horror.

"Wh...What's going on?" Chrome Heart asked as she looked at Neptune in dread and dismay. 'Please, please, please... Don't be what I think this is...'

Purple Nightmare smirked as she realized this was the distraction she needed. "Not exactly what I had in mind, but this works too."

A pillar of black energy engulfed Neptune and Chrome Heart felt her heart sink into a pit of blackness. "No..." She whimpered as she saw Neptune transform.

While she was, physically, the same as Purple Heart, there was none of the warmth, kindness or hope that was associated with her. Her eyes were glowing red and, to Chrome Heart's absolute despair, there was a hole in her chest, above her breasts.

The corrupted Purple Heart pulled out a katana from somewhere, took a stance and let out a primal scream of rage and pain from within.

"Who's first to die?" The corrupted CPU growled in a deep, cold, and almost bestial voice.

To be continued...

* * *

Oh hey, Neptune, you're... Kind of alive? At least she didn't accept the deal willingly.

Damn you, Kurome!


	105. Corruption

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 94

Gripping at her chest, Histoire had a look of pure discomfort on her face. "No..." She whispered, recognizing the feeling that was coming from where Neptune's body wwas located at. "Not again. This is... This is..."

"Like when I possessed myself in this world and became the first Void?" Kurome asked Histoire as she appeared next to the tome while looking on to see what would happen next.

Histoire turned and glared at Kurome. "I swear, if I had all of my pages, I would rend you from reality myself."

Kurome chuckled at her threat. "Well, Histy, let's just watch the end of the world, shall we? Oh, sorry, forgot that I ripped your eyes out."

Histoire twitched and turned to ignore the spirit. 'Neptune...' She felt herself slumping in dismay. 'Has the only flame of hope in this world been snuffed out?' She didn't know what effect this would have on the others, because she didn't know them that well, but she knew what effect it was having on her.

"Don't worry, Histy." Kurome smirked as she watched the corrupted Purple Heart float in place. "I wouldn't have saved Nepsy's life if I thought things were going to be boring."

"Just what are you planning?" Histoire asked her. "I've known you long enough to know that you don't do anything without reason. Unlike Purple Void, you've always been more manipulative and careful in how you work... Orange Void."

"I'm hurt, Histy." Kurome said in a tone that was anything but hurt. "I'm just curious as to which Nepsy will win, that's all."

"...Since all I can do is witness what's to come," neither Histoire nor Kurome needed to bring up the fact that Histoire wasn't capable of much else, "I need to know and I know you had a lot of power in life. Did you change what CPUs would come into the world so that..."

"The CPUs of this world would just so coincidentally be the same ones that Nepsy knows in her world?" Kurome finished Histoire's question. "Not intentionally, if that's what you're wondering. I may have influenced Uranus coming into the world as my successor, as I never got to know my direct successor in my world. The rest?" She shrugged, even though she knew that Histoire couldn't see it. "If I did, it was unintentional." She suddenly grinned and put her hands behind her head as she closed her eyes. "Either way, it worked out for me, this is the most fun I've had since I died!"

Histoire said nothing as she focused on the upcoming battle. "Neptune..." She whispered and focused what power she had. 'Please, Neptune, if you're still in there, talk to me. I need to know.' She hoped, beyond anything else in her existance, that the Neptune she had come to know was still in that body somehow.

Because if not, then the world was truly doomed.

(-)

Purple Nightmare grinned as she felt the despair of the other CPUs settling in. "So tell me," she chuckled as Chrome Heart gave her a nasty look. "Will you continue to fight me and let her do what she wants in her current state, or will you try to fight her and let me go?" Her grin increased as she looked at the group. "Or will you split your forces?"

"Chrome?" Vermilion Heart looked at Chrome in worry. "What should we do?"

Chrome Heart closed her eyes and balled her left hand into a fist. "Everyone... We have to stop Neptune." She opened her eyes, which were glistening with unshed tears. "No matter what, she wouldn't want to become a Void."

Purple Nightmare laughed as she looked at the group. "Well, have fun with, GAH!" She screamed as Chrome Heart was next to her before she could react and smacking the evil CPU with that mace of hers, sending Purple Nightmare crashing to the ground at high speeds.

"Stay there, shut up and maybe I'll be too tired to deal with you later." Chrome glared at Purple Nightmare, who was groaning as she sat up. She was about to say something more when something caught her attention. "Well, that'll be helpful. I'll leave her to them then."

Purple Nightmare scoffed and stood up. "Man, I really should have trained more, huh?" She didn't care because now she would get to watch as the air was suddenly moving and her stomach was hurting. When she landed on her back hard, Purple Nightmare got up and looked around as MAGES., Cave, Mina, RED and B-Sha all stood around her, glaring at her. "Seriously? You five are going to try and face me?"

"Sorry," RED gave Purple Nightmare a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "But your plan to kill the world goes against what I want. If you kill everyone then I can't have really sexy wifies for my harem!"

"You promised me that so long as I did what you wanted that I could live." Mina told her. "Why did you lie to me?"

Purple Nightmare shrugged as she got to her feet. "I never lied. I just decided that this world wasn't needed anymore. So you'd die along with everyone and everything else." She looked at MAGES. and Cave. "Well?"

MAGES. tilted her head. "Well what? I'm still loyal to the CPU of Planeptune. I never ONCE said I was loyal to YOU, however."

Purple Nightmare glared at her. "Fine! I'll kill all of you right now!"

B-Sha and Cave both sighed with B-Sha looking at Purple Nightmare sadly. "You know..." She said softly, "I really did love you, Nep Nep," B-Sha said, to the shock of everyone. "I wanted nothing more than to be with you. I looked the other way so often because I had no choice." A beam sword appeared in her hands. "I can't do that anymore, not after you tried to kill Lady Nepgear."

"Fine..." Purple Nightmare glared as her tentacle limbs crackled and sparked. "I'm glad you five decided to be the first of many as I turn this entire world into a gigantic graveyard!"

MAGES. started to glow brightly. "We'll see."

(-)

"Big sis..." Darkness Sister Pink muttered as her tail swished from side to side. "Why?" Tears were coming out of her eyes before she reached up and rubbed her eyes. "Please, tell me that you're still our big sis Neptune."

Purple Heart's glowing red eyes looked at the CPU Candidate. She opened her mouth and let out a scream that sounded completely unnatural. Her wings pulsed softly as she rushed in at the girl, only to find her blade blocked by a clawed gauntlet.

"No, Neptuna!" Darkness Yellow pushed against Purple Heart's sword. "Come back!" She had an upset look on her face as she pushed Purple Heart back. "Come on, Neptuna!" The pleading in her voice was painful to listen to.

Purple Heart's sword glowed before she swung rapidly, sending short, fast waves of energy at Darkness Yellow and Darkness Sister Pink, who created a heart barrier in front of them to block the rapid attacks. With each attack, Darkness Sister Pink grimaced and took a step back. "Victory Slash." Purple Heart's corrupted voice was heard and both CPU Candidates watched in horror as Purple Heart rushed forward and suddenly cut the barrier into pieces with ease.

"NO!" Vermilion Heart blocked the attack from Purple Heart. "Dammit, what's wrong with you?" Both the CPU Candidates quickly got back, thanking Vermilion Heart for the save.

"I'll show you." Purple Heart growled and pushed against Vermilion Heart's scythe. "My true strength." She pushed Vermilion Heart off of her and the two rapidly started swinging their weapons against each other and all anyone could see was a whirlwind of metal, as well as the clang of metal on metal. "What's the matter?" Purple Heart growled at Vermilion Heart. "Can't you win without stealing all of our shares?"

Not far away, Chrome Heart frowned in confusion. "What is she talking about?"

"Maybe something happened in Neptune's past?" Darkness Sister Black asked in confusion. "Alright... I got an idea." Chrome Heart looked at her. "Remember when we were under Kei's mind control in Lastation?" Chrome Heart nodded at her. "I might have been under their control, but I remember what Neptune told Noire. We just need to beat her up and she'll return to normal."

"This isn't the same thing." Chrome Heart told her as she looked at Purple Heart, who was blocking Vermilion Heart and took a kick from Darkness Yellow, knocking her away. "This isn't mind control, this is corruption. If..." She screwed her eyes shut as memories of what she promised Neptune came to her mind. "If Neptune has fully turned into a Void..." She opened her eyes as they glistened with unshed tears, "allow me to kill her." Darkness Sister Black looked at Chrome Heart in shock. "I promised her, if she became a Void, that I would kill her."

"Don't act like she's never coming back." Darkness Sister Black said as the tip of her tail opened up and she fired a blast at Purple Heart, hitting her in the stomach and knocking her back. "We just need to knock her out and then find a way to break through the corruption." She blushed at the look she got from Chrome Heart. "I, um, can adjust the power of the blasts to be blunt instead of piercing?"

"I see," Chrome Heart nodded, "fine, let's save Neptune then."

"Right!" Darkness Sister Black nodded and the two flew towards Purple Heart. "Listen! Rom! Ram!" She yelled at the Lowee twins. "It would be best for us to fight at range, if we can keep Neptune off-balance, it would be for the best."

"Chrome, Peashy and I can fight at close range." Vermilion Heart said and rushed in, followed by Darkness Yellow.

"What about me?" Darkness Sister Purple asked as she floated near Chrome Heart.

"Observe for now." Chrome Heart told her. "Those large hands of yours," she used her mace to tap the giant hands that were under the girl's arms, "make you useful in either close or long range."

"Okay." She nodded and tilted her head. "Um, I might be wrong, but I think Neptune isn't putting as much strength into her blows as she can."

Chrome Heart looked confused for a moment as she looked at the battle and realized something important. "Sh...She's only using her upper body for those attacks. Her injuries, even if she was saved because of that Fearicite, they're too severe."

"Then we have a chance." Darkness Sister Purple smiled nervously. "Right? If we wear her out?"

Chrome Heart nodded and looked at the range group. "Leave Neptune to me." They looked at her in surprise. "Please?" They nodded and Chrome Heart smiled. "Thank you." Turning, her wings glowed before she rushed at Purple Heart at full speed, her mace held to the side. When she got close, she swung across her body at full speed while letting out a yell, hitting Purple Heart, who gasped in pain and surprise. "I'm sorry, Neptune." Chrome Heart whispered as her wires wrapped around Purple Heart and quickly pinned the CPU's arms to her side. "Filyn! Peashy!"

"Right!" Darkness Yellow called out as she flew above Chrome Heart. "Super Drop KICK!"

Purple Heart glared at the blonde before her body glowed and changed forms into a fighter jet, snapping the wires and taking off, driving the nose of her new form into Darkness Yellow's stomach. "Die." Purple Heart's nearly demonic voice came out of the jet as it took into the sky like a rocket. Before anyone could react, Purple Heart had changed back to normal and was slashing and cutting at Darkness Yellow, who cried out in pain with each attack. "Now the finiAAAAH!" She cried out as lightning came out of the clouds and blasted her from multiple angles.

Chrome Heart grimaced at the pain coming from Purple Heart as she flew up. 'Hang in there, Neptune,' she thought as she got close to the corrupted CPU. "I promise! I'll save you somehow!"

Purple Heart's glowing red eyes and inhuman scream were the only response she got.

(-)

Purple Nightmare tried to fly into the air, only to get slammed by a giant ice mallet back to the ground.

"No flying." MAGES. told her, "you can hover, but no flying."

Pushing herself off of the ground, Purple Nightmare growled. "Fine! I'll just deal with you first!" She yelled as her damaged tentacle limbs shot forward at MAGES., who smirked and hopped over the lunge.

"Really? I thought you were scarier than this." MAGES. chuckled at Purple Nightmare and quickly disappeared as several swords ripped through where she had been just a moment ago.

Cave rushed in, her sword-scissors held in front of her as she tried to strike at Purple Nightmare, who spun and parried her attack. Cave's eyes widened as Purple Nightmare grabbed her neck with her free hand and squeezed hard, causing the redhead to start coughing and gagging.

"What?" Purple Nightmare asked while she spun around, her tentacle arms batting the others away from her. "I offered you a chance to be one of my knights. I give you the chance to be one of the last humans alive." She growled in anger. "And you turn it down!?"

A sudden energy hand grabbed Purple Nightmare, who turned to see Mina, her hair glowing pink, grabbing her and squeezing her as hard as she could. "I can't believe I ever... I ever let you lie to me!"

MAGES. clapped her hands as her rings glowed green, red, white and blue. "Keep it up, this spell takes time to fire." The sky darkened and golden points formed across the sky. "Symphonic..."

Purple Nightmare growled and, in a surprising show of force, managed to turn her body, even while grabbed by Mina's energy hand, and threw Cave into Mina hard enough that the Mina was smashed into the ground and Cave bounced off of her. Needless to say, the energy hand holding Purple Nightmare had dissipated. "DIE!" She yelled and launched a wave of energy at MAGES., who could only stare as it came crashing down.

'I guess I deserve this, huh?' MAGES. closed her eyes and waited for the end. When she felt something touch her and the wind moving through her hair, she opened her eyes and stared in shock.

"I cannot fly, so I would not be helpful in helping Lady Uni save Lady Neptune," the blue ninja that had saved her said, "but against that fraud of a CPU? I can gladly help."

"Thanks, handsome." MAGES. smiled at him as he stammered.

Purple Nightmare was glowing, not purple, but red and black as she panted. "I am so SICK and TIRED of this INTERFERENCE! WHY CAN'T PEOPLE JUST DIE LIKE GOOD LITTLE SHEEP?!" She screamed as energy started to build up around her. "I AM SICK OF ALL OF YOU!"

"What's going on?" Steamax asked as even he could feel an even larger build-up of power coming from the Nightmare CPU.

(-)

Kurome looked at Purple Nightmare and raised an eyebrow. "Huh, so that's happening, huh?" Considering that Fearicite was based on Kurome's own negative energy and what it had done to this world, the spirit just nodded. "I've wondered about the effects of direct exposure to Fearicite ever since this Nepsy swallowed it." She grinned as she continued to watch. "Oh well, this is fun!"

Histoire ignored her and was, in fact, floating away from her. 'Neptune... Please... Are you there?'

_"...H...Histy? I'm cold... I'm scared Histy..."_

Histoire gasped in surprise. "Neptune!"

To be continued...

* * *

Hope spot!


	106. Restoration

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

* * *

Chapter 95

_"H...Histy..."_ Neptune whimpered as she heard the voice. _"Where are you? All I see is black ink around me... It's pulling me under it. Histy..."_

"Don't give up, Neptune!" Histoire's voice was comforting, but Neptune could feel herself getting more and more exhausted with each passing moment, she hurt so much and she was so cold. "Please! We'll find a way to save you."

_"Too..."_ Neptune grimaced as her head barely stayed above the cold, black ink. _"Too much, Histy..."_ Tears fell from her eyes as she tried to keep her head above the darkness. _"It's pulling me under."_

"Don't give up!" Histoire's voice had Neptune gasping. "Even if you fall under, don't give up! I promise you! No matter what, Neptune, I won't let you die."

Neptune smiled. _"Thanks, Histy..."_ She took one last gasp before sinking under the black inky liquid completely. 'But it's too late. I don't think I can come back a third time.'

(-)

IF watched in dismay as magic beams of light rained down upon Purple Nightmare, who seemed to be just shrugging it off while screaming in an ever-increasing distorted sound. "This is nuts..." The Void CPU was using that glowing sword to cut through energy constructs fired from Mina while using her tentacle limbs to keep B-Sha, Cave and RED away from her. The only one who could even get hits in on her was MAGES. and the magic user was only able to keep from being killed thanks to the blue ninja robot.

Compa bit her lower lip as she watched Purple Heart fighting off her friends. "This is wrong. We need to help Nep Nep."

"I know that!" IF snapped at her.

Warechu was about to say something to IF, but there was one thing that stopped him.

The look of pure anguish on IF's face, the repressed tears, the way she looked like she was doing all she could to not break down crying. "...IF? What's wrong?"

"Dammit!" IF cursed and balled her hands into fists. "Nep... She sacrificed so much for us. Suffered for all of us. And for what?!" She screamed and gestured to Purple Heart. "She's gone crazy and is attacking Chrome and the others and all we can do is watch!"

"If that's the case," a voice that filled IF's head had her gasping in surprise, "perhaps this might interest you?"

"Hey! You're that Histy person!" Linda spoke up, remembering the voice that had helped her fly through the tornado wall. "What's up?"

"Neptune is still in there. But she's rapidly losing to the Fearicite that's corrupted her. She needs Shares. If you put all of your faith in her, she might be able to survive."

"Shares..." IF muttered softly and looked at the scientist, who was watching Purple Nightmare fighting Mina and the others. "Hey! You! Old lady!" The woman turned to look at her.

"Yes?"

"I know that Purple Void used a communication array to contact everyone in Planeptune." The scientist nodded at her. "Do you know if it can contact other nations?"

"Iffy?" Compa looked at her friend. "What are you..?"

"It might be able to..." The scientist nodded. "What do you have in mind?"

"Heh heh," IF suddenly had a toothy grin on her face. "We're going to save Nep... And everyone's going to help us."

(-)

In Lowee...

Financier looked up as Artisan walked into the Basilicom office. "Back from Leanbox?"

Artisan nodded, sighing heavily. "How are things here?" The horned woman looked extremely worn out. "Before you answer, I'll say this... The amount of tentacle monsters in Leanbox is insane!" She had a look on her face that showed her complete disbelief. "I... I know that she was doing this for years, but my god... I never thought much about those creatures, even though Chrome told me horror stories of them, but now..." She shuddered in disgust. "I say we get everyone out of Leanbox and then we turn that nation into a glass monument or something."

"You know that Lowee can't take in too many people." Financier shot back. "Between the increasing earthquakes and the way the forest is growing even faster, I'm thinking that we may have to abandon Lowee in a year if Lady Neptune doesn't get back here soon."

"Miss Financier!" A security guard ran into the head office. Both Financier and Artisan looked at the guard. "Come outside! Quickly!"

"Huh?"

(-)

When they got outside, they were greeted by a large holographic image of IF in the center of the town square. Outside of discolorations from the reconstruction, there was no evidence of the fight between Purple Heart and White Void all those months ago.

"People of Gamworld," the holographic image spoke up, "my name is IF. Some of you know me, most of you don't."

"What's she doing?" Artisan asked, confused.

"But all of you know who CPU Purple Heart is."

(-)

In Leanbox...

"Did something happen to my darling Neptune?" Chika asked as she walked through the interior tunnels of Leanbox, having stopped when she saw IF's face show up on the monitors.

"I am currently in Planeptune where CPU Purple Heart is facing the final Void of Gamworld, Purple Void."

Chika gasped in delight. "I knew that my darling Neptune could do it." She jumped and clapped in happiness before pouting. "I just wish she'd call me. I miss her."

(-)

In Lastation...

Ganache and Chian both looked at the television screen in Chian's diner, as did everyone else in the diner, both of them glad that Neptune was still alive.

"However, CPU Purple Heart got badly hurt during her fight against the Void of Planeptune." IF said, looking troubled. "She put herself on the line, got so beaten up so many times, all to save us, whom she had no reason to save. Please, everyone... She needs our help. Put your faith in Purple Heart. Not because she saved us. Because she gave us hope for a better world."

Ganache and Chian looked at each other and nodded, each of them pulling out cell phones and making calls. "What are you all doing?!" Chian called out to her patrons. "You heard IF! Put all of your faith in Lady Purple Heart! She saved Lastation from that giant monster! We need to help her! Let's do it!"

"You heard right?" Ganache asked as he made his conference call to all of his business contacts. "Look, I don't care how it sounds, you either put faith in Purple Heart or I'll force all of your loans into default next week." He smirked as the people quickly agreed to it. "And make sure that your employees agree as well!"

(-)

In another part of Lastation...

"You heard her!" Brave yelled as he pointed his sword at the gangs that had gotten to the upper levels of Lastation and had been causing problems. "I won't kill you if you put your faith in Purple Heart. So if you want to live, you pray to your goddess right now!"

Every single punk immediately fell to their knees, threw their hands into the air and chanted Purple Heart's name over and over again.

(-)

Back in Lowee...

Financier didn't even have to ask anyone as everyone started to cheer and pray for Purple Heart. Some of them had even thrown their hands into the air.

Artisan was one of them as she held her left arm partially up. "What?"

"Why are you doing that?" Financier asked and Artisan shrugged.

"I dunno, it just... Feels right." The redhead chuckled as Financier shrugged and raised both hands into the air.

"For Lady Purple Heart!" Everyone started to cheer.

(-)

In Leanbox...

"You heard her!" Chika yelled as she got a portable communication device and put her face up on all the screens, her face was split next to IF's, "for my darling Neptune! All of you! Put all of your faith in her now!"

It didn't take long for everyone in Leanbox to give their faith to Purple Heart.

Even some of the tentacle monsters were raising their tentacles up as though they were giving Purple Heart their support. Though no one was there to see it.

(-)

In Planeptune...

The people of Planeptune stared at the image of the girl with the multi-colored skin and spoke to all of them.

"Please! People of Planeptune! Purple Heart can stop Purple Void! But she needs your help!"

The people looked at each other, unsure if they could believe this person.

"I know it might be hard to believe." IF continued. "But I've seen Purple Heart, I've been with her. She saved Lowee, Leanbox and Lastation. She wants to save you too. If nothing else, she's way better than a CPU who will kill you for laughing at her when she trips over a rock, isn't she?! And she doesn't have creepy robots and... Okay, lady, what the hell do you mean by pedophiles working for her? Yeah of course Purple Heart doesn't have any of them."

"PURPLE HEART! PURPLE HEART!" There was suddenly a loud cheer from the people of Planeptune over that last bit.

(-)

On the Basilicom grounds...

Purple Heart rushed in, her sword held up high, her body was covered in burns, cuts and scrapes, but she was still going strong as her eyes glowed brightly. "DIE!" She screamed as she got close to the person in front of her.

"NO!" Chrome Heart, who had been pushed away by several glowing blades, yelled in shock as she watched Purple Heart swing her sword at the one person that she never thought Purple Heart would ever hurt.

Darkness Sister Purple stared in horror as Purple Heart's katana got closer and closer. She cringed and screwed her eyes shut so that she wouldn't see the blade hitting her.

When no pain came, she opened her eyes and stared in shock as the blade was shaking a scant millimeter from her nose.

"N...ep...G...ear?" Purple Heart asked, tears falling from her eyes as the glowing in her eyes started to subside and Purple Heart's normal eyes were starting to be seen. "N...no..." Her katana disappeared. "I won't... I won't hurt my little sister ever again."

"Neptune..?" Darkness Sister Purple wanted to hug her sister, but she was hesitant to act.

The glow in her eyes completely faded away. "I...I'm alive?" She could feel the Fearicite was still there and was rushing back at her. "H...Help..."

Chrome Heart motioned for the others to stand down as she flew over to the sibling CPUs. "Neptune!" She grabbed Purple Heart's shoulders and made Purple Heart face her. "It's me, Chrome."

"Ch...Chrome..?" Purple Heart looked at her, smiling softly before gasping and letting out a pained cry. "...Kill me." She clutched her chest and doubled over in pain.

"What?" Chrome Heart gasped, as did Darkness Sister Purple.

"It..." Purple Heart shuddered in horror. "It's taking over. Please..." She looked up at Chrome Heart. "I..." She pulled her hands away from her chest and Chrome Heart could see to her horror that the hole in Purple Heart's chest was still there. "It's already too late."

"Hey, um..." Darkness Sister Pink suddenly spoke up. "I feel kind of..." Her eyes widened as her transformation suddenly wore off and she found herself falling to the ground as Ram. Thankfully her sister had flown down and grabbed her shortly before she hit the ground, only to find her own transformation had worn off.

"Everyone get to the ground!" Chrome Heart yelled at them as she grabbed Purple Heart and flew to the ground. "Neptune, I won't..."

Purple Heart smiled at her and hugged her tightly. "It's okay, Chrome, you tried..."

As soon as Chrome touched the ground, she, along with the other CPU Candidates and Vermilion Heart all transformed back into their human forms with Purple Heart returning to being Neptune a moment later.

Chrome let go of Neptune, who immediately collapsed. "Neptune!"

"Heh heh... I can't feel my legs anymore." Neptune giggled before crying out as she rolled onto her back. "I... Chrome... I fought it back, but it's coming back. I know it is."

"Don't you dare give up, Neptune!" Chrome told her as she lifted up Neptune's upper body. "I won't let you." Neptune just gave her a sad look. "Don't... I..." She shook her head. "I can't kill you! I care too much about you!" Chrome hugged Neptune tightly. "Don't make me do it."

"I'm sorry..." Neptune shivered softly. "It's coming back. I'll be forced to fight you all again." Tears fell from her eyes. "Chrome... Please... Kill me now. I don't..."

"Don't give up, Neptune." Histoire's voice was heard. "Not yet. Just hold on for a little bit longer. The feelings of the people of this world... They'll help you, I promise you that..."

Whatever Histoire was going to say was cut off as an utterly inhuman scream was heard from the other side of the Basilicom grounds. Everyone turned and stared at Purple Nightmare, who was glowing red and black while she gripped her head with her hands.

Purple Nightmare suddenly let out another scream and everyone stared in horror as her tentacle limbs not only regenerated, but another set of regular arms burst out of Purple Nightmare's sides in a bloody and gruesome manner, while the area around her hips suddenly burst open in a disgusting and gory manner, causing her legs to fall off as her lower body seemingly transformed into a lobster-like body. Everyone watched in disgust and horror as Purple Nightmare's head twisted and turned in such a way that Ram immediately threw up upon seeing the head turn and twist until it was upside down and staring at them.

"I'm gunna have nightmares about that when I'm dead in Hell." Neptune muttered, her face green. "But why did she suddenly become like this. None of the other Nightmares did."

"Because none of them were in their Nightmare form for very long." Chrome said as she realized it. "Maybe what we see is a restrained form and if they're in it for too long they lose what control they have and become... This?"

"You think so?" Neptune asked and Chrome shrugged helplessly. "Nep it... Between this and..." She trailed off, her pupils shrinking as she felt an absurd amount of Share energy start to flood her body. "It... It can't be."

She could feel the Fearicite in her being pushed back, driven to the furthest corners of her being and eradicated.

The next thing anyone knew, Purple Heart was in Chrome's arms and hovering there. What was completely shocking was the fact that the hole that had been there over her chest was seemingly gone, though if someone looked closely, they could see a dark mark where the hole had been and even her left eye had returned to its original color, though it was slightly darker than her other eye and her hair still had red and black streaks in her hair, though they were faded. "I see..." She said as she closed her eyes. "This is the hope of the whole world, huh?" She opened her eyes and looked at Chrome, smiling. "Chrome," she looked at Filyn, "Filyn," then she looked at the twins, "Rom, Ram," then she looked at Peashy, "P-Ko," she finally looked at Uni and Nepgear, "Uni and Nepgear... I ask all of you... Put all of your faith in me."

"What are you going to do?" Rom asked, "you're badly hurt, how can..?"

Purple Heart smiled at Rom. "As a CPU, you must do things that others can't, because you need to protect them so you have something to come home to." She looked at Purple Nightmare, who was screaming in rage, "and even if I'm badly injured and can barely move, I have enough left in me for one more attack. But I need all of you to put your faith in me."

"Only if you promise to come back alive." Chrome told her and Purple Heart nodded. "Then, take all the shares I can give you."

The others all nodded and Purple Heart smiled at them. "Thank you, everyone." She closed her eyes as her shares swelled to unimaginable heights. 'I don't know if the Fearicite is really gone or not, but if it's not, then I'll make sure to end this with my next attack.'

She opened her eyes and looked at Purple Nightmare. "I realize something, evil me." She said softly as she looked at the form her evil self had taken on. "The real reason I couldn't stand you... Is because you are what I could have become." A look of raw determination filled her eyes as the air started to crackle with power that no one had ever felt before. Even Purple Nightmare stopped screaming to look at her. "But no more. I won't become what you are. I swear upon the power of my Hyper Share Crystal!"

Everyone watched as Purple Heart's share crystal, glowing brightly, popped out of her chest as a screen formed in front of her. "Next Program... ACTIVATE!"

To be continued...

* * *

About freaking time!


	107. Next Vs Nightmare

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

I hope this is what you were waiting for.

* * *

Chapter 96

"Next Program... ACTIVATE!"

There was a blinding flash of light and when it was over, Purple Heart had changed again. Her body suit now covered every part of her body, save for her head and was black with blue trim, save for a gray mesh that covered her abdomen, thighs and the inner part of her chest, her hair, while in the same style as Purple Heart, was longer, unbraided and had become lighter in color to the point of being somewhere between purple and blue. The hair clips on her head had opened up and looked like her d-pad hair clips, only black and thinner. On her legs were a pair of metal purple boots that went up to her knees and on her arms were two large purple gauntlets that went from her wrist up to her elbows. Above her hair clips were two large antennae and on her back was a circular object that suddenly exploded outwards and the light looked like an eight-point star. When the light faded, there were eight wings in a circular pattern around her body and two thin, blue rings. In the center of the wings, on the metal circle that they were all connected to was the symbol of Planeptune. In her hands was a single-handed blade that was purple.

"Next Form, Complete." The transformed Purple Heart intoned and if one looked closely at her eyes, they would see that the power symbol in them had gained an extra line near the top.

"Next..." Uni stared in shock.

"Form..?" Nepgear finished for her.

"SO COOL!" Rom and Ram cheered at the same time.

"You had this up your sleeve this whole time, huh?" Chrome asked, smirking as she looked at the CPU floating there. "What do we call you in this form?"

"Next Purple." Was the answer she got. Turning, Next Purple looked at Uni and gave her a sad look. "I want you to know, Uni, that if not for the torture I had been subjected to in Lastation, I would have used this form to cut down that airship and save your sister."

Uni snorted at her. "It's not like you went "oops, I just remembered I could do this" or some other crap, right?" Next Purple shook her head. "Then whatever, I'm sure that Noire doesn't blame you either."

Next Purple smiled at her. "Thank you."

"Wow, Neptuna!" Peashy suddenly yelled as she looked at Next Purple. "That's your new form?"

"Indeed," Next Purple turned and faced Purple Nightmare, who was now rushing at her counterpart. "You really think I didn't have a trump card left to play, evil me?" She looked down at her feet. "Hmm, I still can't feel my legs." Focusing on her shares, she found that she could move her legs if she made her shares do it for her. "Okay, then I can do this."

"What are you going to..." Chrome asked as suddenly Next Purple's power started to build up. "...EXE?"

"This is for Gamworld..." Next Purple intoned as power suddenly exploded from her feet and from her back while she grabbed her sword and held it to the back and side while turning. "It's time, evil me..." Her power continued to build up and explode outwards as her sword got longer and longer. "DIMENSION SLICE!"

Purple Nightmare was fairly close to Next Purple by this time and launched her damaged tentacle arms out at Next Purple, who suddenly moved so fast that they couldn't keep up. "DIIIIE!" The Nightmare screamed and swung Gehaburn at the fast moving body coming in.

"Disappear!" Next Purple yelled as she swung her large sword forward, clashing with Gehaburn.

Purple Nightmare's eyes widened in horror as Gehaburn was shattered into pieces, as where her tentacle arms, and her newly grown extra arms, and her lower body, as well as her chest, and the Fearicite Crystal that suddenly came out of her chest.

As the remains of her body fell to the ground, Purple Nightmare returned to her human form, but her body turned red and dissolved before it even hit the ground.

Neptune of Gamworld, also known as Purple Void and Purple Nightmare, was no more.

Next Purple smiled as she finished the attack, which ended with her high in the air. "I..." Her eyes widened as she felt herself return to her human form. "Aw, Neppit! I forgot that attack burns all my shares up!"

Letting out a yell as she fell, Neptune swung her arms in a windmill motion. "This suuuuucks!" Sure, she had fallen from higher places before, but never while she was injured. Plus there was no IF or Noire landing pad down there!

The next thing she knew, there was a pair of arms around her, grabbing her. "I have you, Lady Neptune." Steamax told her as he held her in a bridal carry.

"My hero!" Neptune suddenly hugged Steamax. "You know," she giggled and grinned. "Now I see why Uni has a crush on you." She giggled even more as Steamax suddenly sputtered and stuttered. "I'm just teasin' ya." Though she wouldn't be surprised if this world's Uni did have strong feelings for Steamax, but she had no clue.

As they got close to the ground, a magic circle formed in the air and slowed Steamax's descent enough that when he touched the ground there was no jerking motion.

"Yay! Ground floor! Everyone off the ninja elevator!" Neptune cheered as Steamax put her on the ground.

The instant he let go of her, she collapsed under her own weight. "Ah darn it! Don't tell me that I'm paralyzed for real and not just as a status effect?!"

"Ah, I don't know." Steamax said as he immediately helped Neptune off of the ground. "We should get you to a medical bay."

Neptune nodded as the others came running up to them. She gave them all a wry grin. "See? Told you I had enough for one more attack." She sighed in exhaustion. "It's over..."

"Yeah." Chrome nodded and took Neptune from Steamax as she picked up the smaller CPU. "All thanks to you."

(-)

Meanwhile...

"So that's it then, huh?" Kurome looked on as Neptune was carried into the Basilicom to get treatment. "All the Voids of the world are dead, all the Fearicite is shattered."

"Indeed," Histoire told her and floated upwards and towards the others. "If you'll excuse me. I'd like to be with the savior of Gamworld."

Kurome just watched as Histoire floated off. "That's fine, Histy," her eyes closed as she smiled while she looked at Neptune, her eyes gleaming. "It doesn't matter anymore now."

(-)

Laying face down on the examination table, completely naked, save for a sheet over her body, Neptune sighed. "I know I have a nice butt and all, but I wish you wouldn't stare at it so much."

"I'm not staring at your butt, Nep Nep." Compa told her, "but these deep cuts on your back." Her metal hand touched the skin just under the deep gash on Neptune's left side, causing the small CPU to cry out in pain. "Hmm..." She pulled down on the skin, causing Neptune to bite her lip while pounding on the table. "Okay, this looks deep, but I'm not seeing any bone, so I'm sure that this'll heal if we just stitch it up." She let go of Neptune's skin, causing the girl to gasp in relief. "But this..." She touched the area around the cut on Neptune's lower back. "...Nep Nep, I'm touching your butt, can you feel it?"

"Huh?" Neptune had a confused look on her face until a mirror was put in front of her and her face turned red as she saw Compa squeezing and fondling her butt. "H...Hey! Compa! That's lewd!"

Compa frowned softly and gave Neptune's butt a few swats, one of them was so loud that it sounded really painful.

"Uh..." Neptune had a scared look on her face. "What's going on?"

Compa sighed heavily. "We need to wait for the test results to come back, Nep Nep, but... I don't think you'll be walking ever again."

Neptune sighed and lowered her head. "Yeah, I couldn't feel my legs and the only reason I could do that last attack was because I used so many shares to make my body work."

"That might be a good thing." Histoire said as she listened in on the conversation. Neptune looked up and smiled as Histoire floated over to her. She reached up and grabbed Histoire's hand and guided her onto the table. "You aren't human, so you might heal, but it will take a long time and you'll need lots of shares to heal, but you should heal. ...Maybe?"

"Well, better than having a broken body forever." Neptune smiled at her. "And hey, at least I'll have a good story to tell, huh?"

The damaged tome smiled at Neptune. "You are..." She reached forward with trembling arms and Neptune gently pulled her forward. "Thank you, so, so much, for what you did for this world." Histoire told her. "And I'm so, so sorry."

"Huh?" Neptune had a confused look on her face. "Is it cuz I got badly hurt? I knew that was a possibility, Histy. It happens."

Histoire shook her head. "I'm sorry for that as well, but there's something you need to know." She let go of the hug and floated backwards, a truly distraught look on her face. "Without Fearicite or Sharicite... Gamworld is doomed to sink into the abyss."

Both Compa and Neptune stared at Histoire in shock.

To be continued...

* * *

Neptune: OH COME ON! Can't a girl get a break?! Yes, I'm doing the final bit of this chapter! And just after we finished off all the Voids too! Author! I want a mulligan, please?!


	108. Phone Plans

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

I feel like that meme "who updates at 12:30 in the morning?!"  
Me: OH BOY! It's 12:30 in the morning!

* * *

Chapter 97

"What?" Neptune asked, her voice trembling. "You mean... Evil me won?"

Histoire looked down. "I truly am sorry, Neptune. I knew this was a possibility, but if even one Void remained, this world would continue to suffer." She looked up and had a truly miserable look on her face. "I could not tell you that the destruction of the Voids would end in this situation. You may have tried to stop it."

"You're darn right!" Neptune growled at Histoire. "If I had known, I would have tried something crazy back in Lastation."

"What would you have me do?" Histoire asked softly, her whole body showing how utterly defeated she truly was. "I had to observe, for the past sixty years, as this world suffered from greedy, selfish CPUs..." Her body shook with soft sobs. "I truly am sorry, Neptune, that what you did was meaningless."

"...Well..." Neptune suddenly smiled. "Not exactly." She looked over her shoulder at Compa. "Could you get Chrome in here and ask if one of them has my cell phone?"

(-)

After getting Neptune's cell from Nepgear, Chrome walked into the room after Compa. "Okay, so what's the situation? The others are worried that something bad's going on."

"Well, apparently I need stitches, Compa gave my cute booty some good slaps and I couldn't feel anything, I doomed the world, I'm currently naked and I need to make a call."

"..." Chrome gave Neptune, who was grinning at her, a bewildered look. "...Could you explain that dooming the world part a bit more clearly?"

Neptune suddenly pouted. "I was hoping you'd do the "what?" line so I could try and and play up me being naked." She sighed at the look Chrome gave her. "Well, okay, so... Apparently killing all the Voids of Gamworld and destroying the Fearicite crystals... Kiiiind of was a bad thing and apparently the world is doomed."

Chrome frowned and looked at Histoire, who was floating above Neptune and looking regretful. "Okay, I assume you told her, so one, how do you know and two, if true, how much time do we have?"

"I'm connected with Gamworld." Histoire told Chrome. "When the world dies, I shall sink into the abyss with it. I deserve nothing less after all. And as for time... We might be lucky and get three months, but the more accurate timeline would be a few days up to three weeks."

"Histy..." Neptune said softly and looked at her sadly. She looked at Chrome and held out her hand. "Gimme phone!" When Chrome handed it over to her, she smiled and tapped a few buttons on the screen. "...You know, I just realized, I never charged this thing once in the months I've been here and it's still nearly fully charged. ...I don't think I should ask what kind of power source Nep Jr. used for this phone."

"Probably a good idea." Chrome, Histoire and Compa all said at the same time as they didn't want to think about it either.

Neptune giggled and made the call. After a few rings she got an answer. _"Hello?"_ The voice on the other end was scared, timid and full of worry.

It also made Neptune smile brightly. "Hey, Nep Jr., I'm alive."

(-)

In Hyperdimension...

"NEPTUNE?!" Nepgear suddenly cried out so loudly that Uzume, Histoire, Croire and the bigger Neptune, who had returned a little bit ago, all looked at her in shock. "YOU'RE ALIVE?!"

_"Chrome! I'm deaf now! Someone talk to Nep Jr. for me!"_

"No wait!" Nepgear pouted as the phone was handed over to someone else. "Dang it."

"Well, when you scream like a banshee to Tiny Me, of course she'd go deaf." Neptune giggled at Nepgear, who pouted more which just caused the bug catcher to giggle more.

Nepgear was about to say something when someone spoke up on the phone. _"I take it that you're Neptune's little sister?"_ Nepgear's eyes widened as she heard that voice. _"Hello, are you... Huh? Arfoire? You called me that before, Neptune, who the hell is Arfoire anyway?"_

Nepgear let out a soft sigh as she realized that she was talking to someone who merely sounded like Arfoire. "I'm sorry, you sounded like someone that I know who isn't a good person."

_"Ah, I guess that makes sense then. Anyway, Neptune is... Well, alive and mostly okay, other than some cuts and bruises on her body."_

"That's good." Nepgear smiled. "Tell Neptune I'm sorry for yelling so loudly, but we'll be able to come get her in a couple of hours as Croire should be recovered enough by then."

There was some noise coming from the other side of the line and the person on the phone spoke up again. _"...I don't suppose it would be too much to ask if you could bring an entire dimension's worth of people with you, would it?"_

"HUH?!" Nepgear's eyes were white and blank as she heard that request.

_"Here, I'll let Neptune explain it."_ The person said and there was some shuffling going on before someone else picked up the phone.

_"Gee, thanks."_ Neptune grumbled. _"Ah, listen, Nep Jr., this is going to sound a bit weird, but I accidentally doomed this whole dimension."_

"EH?!"

Histoire sighed and floated over to Nepgear and forced the phone away from her ear and put it on speaker. "Neptune, are you there?"

_"Hey! It's Histy! I missed you!"_

Histoire smiled softly as she heard that voice. "I bet you won't say that when you see the mountain of paperwork you have to do."

_"GAH! Histy! You're killing me here! Anyway, Histy, how much open living space do we have in Planeptune?"_

Histoire blinked and tilted her head in confusion. "Might I ask why you need to ask such a question?"

_"Well..."_ Neptune's tone was totally embarrassed and Histoire mentally sighed and prepared herself for something rather stupid, crazy and just plain weird. _"I ended up fighting every single CPU in this dimension, now they're all dead and since all the CPUs are dead, the whole dimension's going to die in three weeks taking everyone with it."_

It took the room several minutes to process what they were just told.

"Well," Croire suddenly smirked, "I can't ever say that Neptune's boring at least."

She was knocked off her book when Nepgear's flying shoe hit her square in the face.

(-)

In Gamworld a few hours later...

"So..." Chrome looked at the group and sighed. "That's the situation." The way that all of them looked at her in shock didn't surprise her in the slightest. If she hadn't heard it from Histoire, she wouldn't have believed it herself.

"So all that we did..." Rom began, a hurt look on her face.

"Was for nothing?" Ram finished, looking like she was going to cry. "We... We saved the world from the Voids and it's still going to die?"

"Seems that way," Chrome told her and crossed her arms under her breasts, "from what I was told, the tome Croire will be able to open a portal for herself and one other person to come through in a couple of hours in her world. Which will be in a couple of days."

"Well, this stinks." MAGES. muttered as she thought about stuff.

"You can teleport, right?" Ram asked MAGES., who nodded. "Then, you can..." She trailed off as MAGES. shook her head. "Why not?"

"Sure, I can jump around no problem from place to place, but only if I know where I'm going." MAGES. answered her. "And, well, I only know Planeptune. You gotta know where you're going so you don't accidentally end up with your butt stuck in a wall or something."

Both Peashy and Filyn looked troubled by what they had heard.

"Excuse me." Compa spoke up as she stuck her head into the room. "We're done with Nep Nep now. If you want to come see her, you can." She smiled as Peashy, Rom, Ram and Nepgear all made their way into the room.

Chrome looked at Compa. "I thought the stitches would take longer." Sure, it had taken a few hours, but considering how deep the cuts had been, she thought it would have taken longer and involved a lot more screaming.

"I did too, but apparently they use magic stitches here." Compa smiled at her. "So the open wounds are easily treated. There shouldn't even be a scar. But the nerves in her spine are a lot more... Delicate, to put it lightly. Histoire says that she'll heal, it'll just take awhile and she needs lots of Shares."

"That's nice and all..." Uni spoke up, "but can we get back to the end of the world?" She gave Chrome a look that was a mixture of desperation and concern. "Do we have a plan?"

"I don't know." Chrome admitted to her. "It all depends on what happens in a couple of days."

(-)

"Hey..." Neptune, who was laying on her stomach, smiled as she looked at the four in front of her. "What? No pudding?" Neptune tried to laugh, but when none of them did, her humor slowly died off. "Hey, I'm okay, so..."

The next thing she knew, Rom was hugging her tightly while trembling. "Stupid big sis! Stupid big sis!" Tears came out of her eyes while Ram slipped in and hugged Neptune as well, forcing the injured CPU to lay on her side. Neptune winced as her tender side was touched, but neither girl was putting her in danger of re-opening her wound while Nepgear looked on with worry on her face while Peashy looked like she wanted to cry or scream.

It took almost ten minutes before the two finally relented enough to let go of Neptune and step back. "Okay, I know I'm a big dumb stupid head, but why did you keep reminding..." Neptune trailed off as Nepgear looked at her and trembled. "Nep Jr.?"

Suddenly Nepgear and Peashy were both hugging her, also crying hard.

Neptune just smiled and hugged them back as best she could. "It's okay... I'm okay now." For some odd reason, the two just cried harder at that.

Neptune knew things would work out. 'At least I hope they will.'

She could worry about that for later. Right now Neptune had four little sisters that all needed comfort and reassurance and Neptune would give it to all of them.

To be continued...

* * *

Well, this was a somber chapter. But at least they have a plan now.


	109. Crash Landings

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Getting closer to the end, everyone.

* * *

Chapter 98

There was a ringing noise from the desk next to her bed that caused Neptune to groan and blindly grab for the ringing object in question. Cracking an eye open, she grimaced at the time and answered the phone. "Hello?"

_"Hey, Tiny Me!"_

"Big Me, it's like three in the morning over here." Neptune's voice was hoarse. "Why are you calling?"

_"Well, Crostie says she's recovered enough to make the jump with me now. I know we're about half an hour early, but I thought you'd want us over there as soon as possible."_

Neptune yawned and nodded. "Yeah, I'll leave the phone on, but I'm going back to sleep. It's hard to sleep with how much my back hurts and I'm really tired right now."

_"Okay, just don't turn the phone off."_

"I won't." Neptune flopped her head back onto her pillow and fell asleep as the phone slipped out of her hand and onto the ground.

(-)

Meanwhile outside...

Standing on the Basilicom grounds, Uni, who was wearing biker shorts and a tank top that morning, was looking at the sky and taking some deep breaths to try and calm herself down.

"You're up early." A familiar voice had her turning to see Chrome, dressed in her usual adventurer pants and shirt, walking out of the Basilicom. Chrome turned her head to see Steamax standing by the wall in a relaxed, yet ready pose. "Couldn't sleep?"

"We're facing the end of the world," Uni told her. "I've been so wired the past couple of days that my sleep schedule is all screwed up."

"I understand," Chrome said as she walked over to the girl. "Been there before myself. The only thing I can say is work through it." She suddenly smirked at the CPU Candidate, "or don't. Right now, until we have a plan, there's no point in stressing yourself out."

"Easy for you to say." Uni muttered. "You're a former CPU, I was born into the world to kill my sister and take over as the Void of Lastation. And now that won't be possible because Noire's dead, the whole world's dead and it doesn't matter what I do now!"

Chrome merely shook her head and walked past Uni before stopping a few feet away. "Do you really think I'm so unflappable, Uni?"

"You never react to anything!" Uni protested as she glared at Chrome's back. "Your lover was laying on the ground, dying and instead of giving her that crystal, you keep it for yourself."

"I've never even kissed Neptune, just so you know." Chrome told her, her voice steady as she ignored the accusations. "And what makes you think I didn't react? I was thoroughly pissed at Purple Void."

"So was everyone else." Uni pointed out. "And the end of the world and you're acting completely like it's okay and..?"

"Should I be screaming in frustration?" Chrome spun around, her hair whipping around as she gave Uni a stern look, quieting the younger girl. "Crying about how unfair everything is?" She walked to Uni until she was standing right in front of the girl, seemingly looming over her. "I wasted sixty years, Uni. Sixty years. I languished in despair for that amount of time. I had the strength and ability to fight back, yet I didn't bother because I felt that life had no meaning anymore."

Uni wanted to say something, but there was something in Chrome's eyes that kept her from speaking.

"I felt that I burned through my emotions ages ago." Chrome continued to speak, her voice never raising or lowering in pitch. "I would scream, cry and smash things when I was alone. But I had to watch after a settlement of people in Lowee who fled from the Void of that nation. I had to watch after my sister who was in a coma for over fifty years because of Iris Void. I lost my nation, my people, my status, almost lost my sister..."

Uni was speechless as she listened. "...I... Chrome, I..."

"I know that it's hard to face the end of the world like I am. But someone has to be the rock for everyone." She put her hand on Uni's shoulder. "If you need to cry onto someone's shoulder, both Neptune and I will let you scream and cry. Never forget that."

"...Thanks." Uni smiled at her. "But isn't it hard?"

"...ove!"

"Hmm?" Chrome raised an eyebrow. "Being everyone's emotional rock?" Uni nodded. "Yeah, it can be hard. I'm used to it by now."

"...move!"

"Um, Lady Uni, Lady Chrome..." Steamax spoke up as he walked out of the shadows and both women turned to him. "I hate to interrupt, but I'm picking up someone yelling 'move' from quite a distance away."

"Huh?" Both Chrome and Uni gave him an identical look of confusion.

"Darn it! Move move move move!"

"Huh, that sounds kind of like Neptune." Chrome muttered and frowned in confusion, wondering if Neptune was up and about or not and why did the voice sound like it was coming from up in the air.

"You know, the last time she yelled move," Uni muttered and slowly looked up. "She was crashing down and ACK!"

There was a loud crash and thump that caused a crater and kicked up a lot of dirt and dust.

"Lady Uni!" Steamax yelled and quickly made his way over to the dust cloud. "Are you okay?" He jerked in surprise when he saw what happened. "What the?"

"Oww, oww, oww, oww!" The person hissed in pain while rubbing their back and sat up. "Nnngh... Crostie! You said we'd get closer to the ground this time!"

Steamax stared in shock. While the outfit wasn't the same, the hair was longer, the body was taller and more voluptuous, the voice and face were unmistakably the same. "Lady Neptune?"

"Hmm?" She blinked a few times and looked at Steamax. "Oh! It's my former coworker!" She giggled and rubbed the back of her head. "How'd you get here?"

"Um... I believe you have me confused with someone else." Steamax told her. "And you're currently sitting on two people."

"Huh?" She blinked and looked down, her eyes widening as she saw someone's head under her parka. "Nep woah!" She jumped back and stared. "Hey! It's Uni."

"Nnnngh..." Uni groaned in pain and slowly sat up. "What the hell is with you falling on me?! This is twice now!"

"I do believe this isn't the same Neptune." Chrome muttered as she got up from where she was on the ground. "Believe me, CPUs don't age in our human forms. Otherwise I'd have wrinkles and gray hair by now." Looking the newcomer over, she raised an eyebrow. "So you're Neptune?"

The girl nodded. "Yep. This Nep is also known as Neptune." She looked around and frowned before something landed on her head. "Hey! Crostie!" She pouted. "I thought you said that we'd be closer to the ground!"

"We were!" The dark-skinned blonde said as she looked around. "We were only one hundred and fifty feet in the air instead of three hundred feet this time."

"That's still a long ways!" Neptune whined with an upset look on her face.

"Um..." Uni looked at her. "...How are you still alive then?"

"I've always been tough." Neptune winked at Uni and curled an arm while patting it. "But enough about me, Tiny Me said something about needing to move a lot of people?"

Croire suddenly let out a squeal of delight. "OH MY!" Her eyes started to sparkle as she looked around. "OH HELL YEAH! This is what I've wanted to see for YEARS!"

"Crostie?" Neptune blinked in confusion. "What are you..?"

Croire had a large grin on her face that was actually disturbing. "Holy fuck! This whole dimension's beginning to collapse! In less than one week this whole reality will go poof!" She started laughing while kicking her feet. "Where's that idiot? I need to give her a big kiss for giving me this gift!"

The next thing Croire knew, a hand was wrapped around her body and she was face-to-face with Chrome, who had a very irritated look on her face. "Try not to get too giddy at the thought of our world being destroyed, some of us like living here." Croire nodded rapidly. "Good," she let go of Croire. "As for Neptune, well... Um..." She looked at the Neptune in front of her. "This is going to be confusing, what can we call you?"

"Well," she smiled at Chrome. "You can call me Big Neptune if you want, since I'm bigger than Tiny Me is." She giggled as Chrome rolled her eyes.

"You certainly have her sense of humor." Chrome smirked at Neptune. "But she's probably still asleep. Anyway, there's..."

"A whole lotta people." Croire said as she looked around. "I have to go explore this world!" Her eyes sparkled in delight. "Holy fuck! I've never seen a dying world like this before! I need to record everything!"

"Crostie..." Neptune gave the fairy a dirty look. "You do realize that if you let everyone die that Nepgear and Histy will hunt you down to the end of the Multiverse and make you suffer, right?"

Croire sweat-dropped upon hearing that. "Ah heh... Don't worry, since that tiny idiot made this possible, I'll make sure to get everyone out of here."

Neptune narrowed her eyes, there was something about the way Croire said that last bit that was setting off all sorts of alarm bells in her head. "...Wait a moment." Neptune gave Croire an annoyed look. "Crostie... Were you lying about how exhausted you were?"

Croire gulped as Neptune, Uni and Chrome all loomed over-head. "...Only for about fifteen hours?"

Chrome twitched and grabbed Croire, squeezing her tightly. "You mean you could have gotten here almost three weeks ago?!" Croire gasped and gripped the hands while kicking her legs up and down. "If one day in your world is basically thirty days here, then it stands to reason fifteen hours in your world is four-hundred and fifty hours here, which is just shy of three weeks."

"You know," Neptune gave Croire a sickeningly sweet smile as the dark-skinned blonde struggled to get out of Chrome's grip. "I know there's a CPU who's a real sadist to bad girls," Croire suddenly turned white as a ghost, "and Tiny Me said that she was friends with that CPU too... I wonder what she'd do to you if she knew you let Tiny Me get hurt without helping her?"

Croire turned blue in the face as she trembled at the thought of facing an angry Iris Heart. "You can't... You wouldn't..." Neptune shrugged. "Oh come on! I've seen what that sadistic bitch does to her friends! You think she'd hold back against me?!"

"I suspect I have an idea of who you're talking about." Chrome said and pulled Croire up to look her in the eye. "So, about saving everyone on this planet..?"

"...For the amount of people and the size of the portal I'd need to make, I need... Well, I can do it in six hours." Croire told her and gulped as Chrome smiled. "But I can only make one big portal and I won't be able to keep it open for more than twenty minutes. After that, I'll have just enough energy to open a smaller portal for a few people. Anyone left behind will be stuck."

"Fair enough." Chrome said and let go of Croire. "I swear if you screw any of us over..."

Croire winced and shook her head. "Trust me, nothing you could do could possibly compare to what those three would do to me." The mere thought of having an angry Histoire, Nepgear and Iris Heart after her was flat-out terrifying.

"Anyway," Chrome said, "Uni, will you be able to relax now?" Uni was silent, but nodded. "Good. How about we go inside and relax for a few hours?"

Uni nodded and suddenly yawned. "Sorry, guess I'm just so relieved that something can be done that it's catching up to me." She nodded to Steamax, who was next to her and offering her a hand, which she took and the group walked inside the Basilicom.

"Oh wow! This looks like a throne room!" Neptune giggled as she looked around. "So neat!"

(-)

Five hours later...

Grumbling as her stomach rumbled, Neptune yawned and licked her lips before reaching up and rubbing her eyes with her left hand. "What time is it?"

"Almost nine." Was the answer she got, but it wasn't from who she expected. As her vision became clearer, she saw Nepgear sitting by her bed. "Good morning." The maid-dressed girl smiled at Neptune. "I got you some pudding, would you like me to feed you?"

Neptune smiled at her. "You don't need to, Nep Jr., it's okay."

"Nonsense," Nepgear smiled and opened the pudding cup, revealing custard pudding that had Neptune's mouth watering. "Your back is still hurting and you can't even walk right now, this is the least I can do."

"Well, if you want to..." Neptune said with some uncertainty. "I mean, I don't want to impose."

Nepgear just smiled and moved Neptune so she was laying on her back, keeping the injured part of her back elevated and sat down with Neptune's head resting on her lap. "Nonsense, just relax and let me feed you."

Neptune sighed and let Nepgear do what she wanted. There were a few reasons for her doing this. One was because she really missed her sister and even if this wasn't her younger sister, she was still Nepgear. The second reason was because she wanted to make Nepgear happy.

And the final reason?

She was hungry and Nepgear was offering to feed her, darn it!

After feeding Neptune the full amount that was in the pudding cup, Nepgear looked somewhat troubled. "Um, Neptune... May I ask you something?" Neptune nodded. "...When you were... Um... A Void, you tried to attack me with your sword, but you stopped just before you hurt me. What happened?"

Neptune was silent for a little while as memories flashed through her mind.

_"W...why?"_

_"Because I despise you, Nepgear."_

"...I did something really horrible to you, Nepgear..." Neptune said softly and looked away. "I won't... I can't..." Her eyes watered up and she screwed her eyes shut. "I'm so sorry."

Suddenly Neptune found herself being moved so that she was sitting on Nepgear's lap, with her younger sister hugging her tightly, which Neptune returned.

They both knew they weren't really the other one's sister.

But neither of them cared at that moment.

For Neptune, no matter how much she apologized or got Nepgear's forgiveness, she could never forgive herself for what she almost did to Nepgear because of Kurome.

The best she could do was try to be the best big sister she could for Nepgear.

For Nepgear, the fact that Neptune apologized was more than enough for her to know that this wasn't her Void of an elder sister.

After all, Purple Void never apologized to her for any of the things that she did to Nepgear or others.

To be continued...

* * *

Dang it, Nep, stop blaming yourself!


	110. Plan Revealed at Last

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Before I begin, please remember that the reviews are not meant to be used as a message board. Thank you.

* * *

Chapter 99

It was an hour later that found Neptune in a wheelchair being pushed around by Rom and Ram. "Boy, this feels familiar, huh?" Neptune smiled back at them.

"Silly big sis..." Rom smiled and looked over her shoulder where Nepgear was silently following them. "Um, you don't need to follow us."

Nepgear said nothing and smiled as she followed after them.

"HEY!" A voice up ahead had everyone jerking in surprise. "Tiny me!"

"Big me!" Neptune's voice perked up as she saw her bigger self coming into view. "And Darksy?" She tilted her head in confusion. "When did you get here?"

"Right after we called you, Tiny Me." The bigger Neptune smiled. "Why are you in a wheelchair? I know that we Neps like to take things easy, but that's a bit much, don't you think?" She looked at Nepgear and jerked in surprise. "Why is Nepgear dressed up as a maid? I know she's super cute, but... No, wait, on second thought," she giggled, "I kind of like how cute she looks like that."

Nepgear found her cheeks heating up as the bigger Neptune complimented her. It felt... Really nice to have someone honestly complimenting her. 'At least, I hope she's honest about it.'

"Um, big sis, why is there another big sis here?" Ram asked as she looked at the bigger Neptune in confusion, though her voice had a tone of nervous wariness in it that suggested that Ram wouldn't hesitate to unleash violence on this version of her big sister.

"Hee hee," Neptune giggled. "Ram, calm down, this is a me from a world where she was born human."

"Yep yep!" The older-looking Neptune smiled at Ram. "I'm just a bug catcher that has two little sisters who are CPUs."

"Which is hilarious," Neptune smirked at her bigger self, "considering that you're younger than both me and Nep Jr. are." She laughed as her bigger self pouted. "That's okay though, I don't mind being your younger sister."

After all, it was kind of nice to have her bigger self around. As much as Vert tried to be like a big sister to her, Noire and Blanc, it didn't change the fact that she fought against them back in the wars and even if there were no hard feelings between them anymore, none of them really saw her as an elder sister to them. Neptune's bigger self was like a cool big sister to her, but Neptune wondered how much of that was because her bigger self was cool and how much of that was Neptune's own bias in regards to the older-looking girl.

"Anyway, Tiny Me," the bigger Neptune had a concerned look on her face, "what's going on?"

"Well, I ended up fighting an evil version of me, got stabbed in my spine and I can't feel my cute booty or feet anymore, I got turned evil, got knocked around, came back to my senses and had to kill my evil self."

"Well..." The other Neptune blinked a few times while having an otherwise blank expression on her face as she processed the information. "You've been busy, huh?"

Neptune nodded at her. "Uh huh... So if you're here, so is Darksy, huh?" Tapping her chin, she smiled at her bigger self. "So I guess the adventure's over now, huh?"

"Yeah, Histy wants you home right away, young lady." The bigger Neptune winked at her smaller self.

"Aw man!" Neptune's voice was full of mirth as she grinned at her bigger self. "I was just starting to have fun. What with the end of the world and all."

Rom, Ram and Nepgear all watched in confusion as both Neptunes suddenly broke into fits of laughter. They didn't understand what was so funny in this situation. But even if they didn't understand what was so funny, all three of them could still smile.

After all, if Neptune was laughing and smiling, then everything had to be okay.

(-)

Twenty minutes later...

"So that's the plan." Chrome said as she finished up talking to the group.

"So we're going to be running to the other nations with the help of the lesbian book?" Linda asked as she looked at Croire, who was blushing and looking away.

"The idiot let me see the one thing I've wanted to see in my life, I couldn't help but give her a big kiss on the lips." Croire huffed in annoyance.

Compa giggled at the antics. "Well, we should just be thankful that Nep Nep has a big sister who has a book fairy and can get us around with ease, huh?"

"Yep!" The Neptune in the black parka hoodie nodded.

"I think that Lowee and Leanbox will be easy to handle." Chrome said and tapped her chin before looking at Rom, Ram and Peashy. "In fact, this will be a good chance for you three to show that you're CPU material. Filyn, would you be willing to help Peashy out in Leanbox?"

"Of course." She nodded at her sister. "What will you do, Chromey?"

"I feel that Lastation will be the hardest nation of all to work with." She looked at Uni, who was looking somewhat troubled. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Uni shook her head. "Just thinking about some stuff."

Chrome nodded and looked at IF, Gust, Warechu, Compa and Linda. "You know, I've not said it yet, but I'm glad you five came with us on this journey." She smiled at their looks of surprise. "I was told about what you did to help Neptune get shares so she could use her NEXT form back there. Thank you, all of you. I doubt we would be here if not for you."

"Yeah!" Neptune smiled at them. "Thanks so much, Iffy. I know you don't like CPUs so that must have been hard."

IF looked somewhat troubled before she bowed to them. "I want to apologize, Chrome and Nep..." Both of the CPUs looked confused as IF remained with her head down. "I... I treated both of you unfairly for so long. I know you were trying to do your best but I..."

"Stop, stop, stop!" Neptune yelled and waved her hands. "First of all, Iffy, you don't need to apologize to me." IF looked up, confused, which was only increased as Neptune smiled at her. "The fact that you helped me when I needed it shows me that you're sorry about what you did, okay? And secondly," Neptune pouted at her, "don't act like that. It's not like you."

"...But I still treated you and Chrome horribly after Leanbox." IF protested her.

"But you still came through when it mattered." Neptune countered, smiling at her. "Besides, Iffy, I don't blame you or any of you, for not liking me or Chrome after you found out we were CPUs."

"Anyway," Chrome spoke up, "we need to go back to the other nations and get them ready to go. I don't think we'd be able to just get them to be ready in an instant. But if we give them some time..."

"Three days." Neptune spoke up and giggled at the looks she got. "Let's give them all three days. That'll be enough time to get what they need together. Right? Clothes, important memories and items and some other stuff."

"Just what can be carried though." Chrome told the others. "Compa, can you, Warechu and Gust go with Peashy and Filyn? IF and Linda, can you go with Rom and Ram?"

They nodded and Croire stretched her arms over her head. "We ready to go?" She snapped her fingers and three purple and black portals opened in the room. "Leanbox," she pointed at the one on the East wall, "Lowee," she pointed at the one on the South side of the room, "and Lastation" she pointed to the to the West side. "Go through them, you'll be dropped off right in front of your Basilicoms. Oh, and don't worry, since this is within the same dimension you'll be right on the ground."

"How will we contact you when we're ready to go?" Uni asked her.

Croire rolled her eyes. "I'll come get you by noon on the third day, okay?"

"Plus the lady that helped us contact the other nations set up the communications so that they can call here." Linda pointed out.

"So, if that's everything," Croire said, "do you want to get going now?"

The group nodded and Peashy, Compa, Filyn, Warechu and Gust went to Leanbox while IF, Linda, Rom and Ram went to Lowee while Uni, Steamax and Chrome went to Lastation. Stopping at the portal, Chrome looked back at Neptune in worry and looked at the bigger Neptune and Nepgear. "You two, please make sure that Neptune is okay." They nodded and Chrome smiled as she walked through the portal after Uni and Steamax.

After everyone was through, Croire shut down the portals and smiled softly. "Man, it's so awesome!" Her eyes sparkled and she looked at Neptune with a giddiness that was almost disturbing. "And here I thought you were a good guy! And you're destroying an entire dimension! If I was as tall as you were, I'd marry you on the spot!"

Neptune gave her an annoyed look. "Try not to cream your underwear, okay, Darksy?"

"Is she always like this?" Histoire, who had been silently observing until then, finally spoke up.

"Nope!" The bigger Neptune spoke up, smiling. "Most of the time, Crostie's whining about being stuck in my Nepnote!"

"Well, we got a few days," Nepgear spoke up while looking shy and demure, "we need to inform the people about the situation."

"Of course." Histoire nodded and Nepgear got behind the wheel chair and pushed Neptune while the other Neptune, Histoire and Croire followed her out of the room.

A soft chuckling filled the room after they were gone. "It's finally time, huh?"

(-)

In Leanbox...

5pb. smiled as she walked around the courtyard in front of the castle. She was certain that Purple Heart had won her fight against all the Voids. That wasn't why she was smiling.

The fact that she had just left a small orgy after getting cleaned up was why she was smiling. It was hard not to smile when she felt so good.

She jumped in surprise when a black and purple portal appeared in front of her. When Peashy, Filyn, a blue haired bunny girl, the mouse that she had helped when he got lost, the mouse's lover all appeared in front of her before the portal closed, 5pb. breathed a sigh of relief. "Welcome back! I take it that everything's good now?"

"Mostly," Compa told 5pb., "we need to talk to miss Chika. We got some bad news."

(-)

In Lowee...

Financier's eyes lit up as she saw Rom and Ram walk into the main Basilicom room with Linda and IF following after them. "Lady Rom! Lady Ram!" She got up from her seat, ran around her desk and hugged the twins. "I was so worried for you two!" She smiled when they hugged her back. "I take it everything's been taken care of?"

"Sadly, no." Linda spoke up and Financier looked confused as she let go of the twins. "There's a big problem."

(-)

In Lastation...

Uni had finished explaining what was going on to Brave, who nodded at her. "I... I know I need to save everyone, but part of me feels like I'm abandoning this nation." She jerked in surprise as a hand touched her shoulder. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Steamax standing there silently. "Steamax?"

"I think you're more worried that you feel like you're abandoning your sister. Do not worry, Lady Uni. I know for a fact that Lady Noire would do this as well if she thought it would help everyone."

Uni nodded and looked at Chrome, who gave her an encouraging nod. "Alright, the sooner we get this done, the better."

(-)

Everyone suddenly paused as all the screens across the city changed to reveal Uni's face. "Citizens of Lastation. I am the acting CPU of Lastation, the younger sister of Black Void. As you know, I left with CPU Purple Heart to Planeptune not too long ago. I can say, without hesitation, that we were able to deal with the Void of Planeptune." She paused and let that sink in for the people. "However, a problem has arisen. Due to the fact that there are no more Voids in the world, the whole planet will soon start to become unstable. Do not panic, thanks to CPU Purple Heart, none of us have to worry about dying as she revealed that she can save all of us."

Everyone looked at each other in confusion as Uni told them that.

"To that end, we must abandon Lastation. In three days time I will make another announcement. I ask that you get your clothes, important mementos and anything you can carry packed up. Only take what you can carry with you. I am having the Progbots reprogrammed as soon as this message is finished so they can assist people who need it. Members of the Basilicom staff will help direct people in the coming days. I urge all of you to remain calm as CPU Purple Heart has assured me that none of you will be left behind or die. Some of you are probably wondering what happened to her and she is staying in Planeptune to help the people there."

Uni gave everyone a stern look. "I am warning all of you, however, that if there are any of you that decides to riot and harm others, I will not hesitate to lock you in prison and leave you there after everyone else leaves."

After that, the video shut off and everyone was understandably nervous, but that ended with screams with people rushing to get back to their homes.

(-)

"Chian!" Ganache cried out as he entered the diner and sighed as she was okay. "Come, we need to get going."

"Yes." Chian nodded and smiled at her workers. "You're all fired, go home and get your stuff packed up. I'll see you in three days when Lady Uni makes another announcement."

"Yes!" They all yelled and rushed out of the diner to get home.

Chian sighed softly and walked around the counter to give her husband a small kiss on the cheek. "Hey, honey, there's something I wanted to tell you, I was going to keep it a surprise for another week, but..." She grabbed his hand and put it on her belly, smiling as his eyes widened. "Congrats, daddy."

Ganache suddenly grinned and kissed her on the lips while hugging her tightly. He did wish that he had gotten this news sooner, but it was nice to know that he was going to be a father.

He just hoped that everything would work out.

(-)

In Planeptune...

Neptune sighed as she leaned back in her wheel chair. "It's been a few hours, huh?" She had made the announcement to everyone in Planeptune and knew that things were hectic right now, but with MAGES., Mina, RED, B-Sha and Nepgear's help, they had managed to get the populous mostly under control and things were proceeding smoothly. She wanted to call the other nations to make sure that they were okay, but decided that she could wait.

"Hello, Nepsy." Kurome said as she appeared in front of Neptune. There was a smug look on her face that Neptune didn't like. "I knew you could do it." She slowly raised her left hand up to the sky. "Sadly, Nepsy, this is the end." Her face showed true sadness and remorse on it. "I really am sorry, but this is my only chance."

"What are..?" Neptune paused and her face turned pale as the sky turned bright red and a large Fearicite crystal appeared in the sky. "Wh..WHAAA?!"

"All those Fearicite Crystals you destroyed?" Kurome told her, "they simply returned to this... And didn't you find it strange that every time a Void was killed a red beam of energy would shoot straight into the sky, turning the sky red before it went back to normal?" She smirked at Neptune's paling face. "All you did was condense all the power that you went up against, all of their power and souls returned to where they came from."

"But... If that's the case," Neptune began as she trembled as her whole body felt as if it was being pushed into ice water. "The world shouldn't be ending."

Kurome chuckled at her. "Sorry, Nepsy, this isn't what you think. This has been building up for over sixty years now. This crystal won't hold the world together, but it will help me with my plan."

"What's going on?!" Nepgear cried out as she ran outside and saw the red sky, Neptune and Kurome in front of her. "What are you doing?!"

Kurome lowered her hand and several energy limbs shot out of the manifestation of the crystal and grabbed Neptune before she could react, pulling her up into the air as Kurome followed after her. "I wish it didn't have to come to this, Nepsy. But the real reason I spared your life..." A glowing sickle appeared in each of her hands and at the ends of them was a chain. "Was because I need your body to finish my revenge on Gamindustri, Nepsy."

Neptune growled and focused on her Shares. "I won't let you! Access!" She flashed white for a moment before realizing that she didn't change. "Nep-wha?!"

"This is my power condensed, Nepsy." Kurome told her, "and since you're being held by it, I control what you do." As soon as they got high enough into the sky, Neptune watched in horror as Kurome threw her sickles into Neptune's body, both of them stabbing her in the chest. Though there was no blood as the skin wasn't pierced, Neptune gasped in horror as Kurome pulled on the chains and she felt as though she was being ripped apart. "I'm going to remove your soul from your body, Nepsy." Kurome told her as she pulled even as Neptune fought against it. "When I do, I'll insert myself into your body."

Neptune's eyes widened as she realized something horrifying. "n...No! You'd turn all the CPUs in Gamindustri into Voids?!"

"Not just your friends and my other self," Kurome gave her a cool smile. "But your friends from that other dimension as well. And they won't realize that it's not you until it's too late."

"NO!" Neptune cried as she tried to fight against what Kurome was doing but found that her soul was slipping out of her body.

"Goodbye, Nepsy." Kurome whispered as she gave the chains one last hard pull.

To be continued...

* * *

Oh, so that's what Kurome's plan was this whole time, huh?

Even near the end, I can't give Neptune a break. It all comes to a head in the next, and final, chapter of Echoes of the Dark.


	111. The End

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Here we go, final chapter. It feels so weird to not write any more on this story.

* * *

Chapter 100

"Goodbye, Nepsy." Kurome whispered as she gave the chains one last hard pull.

Neptune could feel her soul holding on by strands that were quickly straining and about to snap. "Please..." She whimpered, looking at Kurome as tears came out of her eyes. "Don't."

Kurome didn't answer as she continued to pull on the chains.

Neptune's spirit screwed her eyes shut, preparing for the end when the chains suddenly jerked and there was a sound of metal hitting metal, which caused her to open her eyes in shock as a pink energy blade cut through the chains, severing them. "H...Huh?"

"What the hell?!" Kurome asked in shock as she looked at her chains stupidly.

"YOU UTTER PIECE OF CRAP!" A familiar voice had Kurome and Neptune both turning their heads, just in time to see Kurome get hit in the face by a white blur, causing the spirit to cry out in pain.

"Fufufufufu..." Another voice spoke up and Neptune could only stare in shock as the spirits of Green Void and White Void appeared in front of her. "To think that we'd finally get to vent our frustrations on the source of our suffering after so many years." Green Void smirked as she held her scythe in front of her.

White Void snarled at Kurome. "It's you... You're the utter piece of shit that made Voids, it's your fault that Red Void murdered my best friend! It's your fault that I was so horrible to my little sisters!"

"Indeed," Green Void glared at Kurome. "To think all that everyone suffered was because of you."

The next thing Neptune knew, a hand was on her soul's shoulder. She turned her head and saw Black Void next to her. "Hang on, Neptune." She pulled the sickles out of Neptune's soul. "Leave her to us." Her hip blasters pointed up and shot the arms that were holding Neptune in the air apart, but Neptune found that she wasn't falling right away.

"But..." Neptune gasped as Black Void pushed her soul back into her body. "I should..."

"You said that a CPU is supposed to be a guardian goddess." White Void said, her voice lacking all the hatred in it from the last time they met. "Then it's about time we started fucking acting like the guardians we were supposed to be."

"How are you all here?" Neptune asked and all three of them pointed at the manifestation of the Fearicite in the sky.

"From Fearicite we were born, to Fearicite we return." Black Void told her, smirking. "Don't worry about us."

"If you think," Kurome growled at the three spirits. "That three dead CPUs will be enough to defeat me, you have another thing coming!"

"...Three?" A new voice spoke up and Kurome's eyes widened as she turned around to see three other CPUs behind her. "Sapphire Void, Red Void... I do think that she's mistaken about something."

"Indeed, Emerald Void," Red Void nodded and more and more CPU spirits started to form around them. "And it's not just us Voids who are here to deal with you."

A spirit formed next to Neptune and smiled at her. "Look after my younger sisters, Chrome and Filyn, for me." The spirit said to her. Neptune looked at her in surprise. "Even we Hearts have a bone to pick with this one."

"Yeah..." White Void looked back at Neptune. "I know that they won't accept it, but please tell Rom and Ram that I'm sorry for all that I did to them."

"Do the same for me with Peashy." Green Void told her.

"And tell Uni that I love her." Black Void told Neptune.

Kurome growled in frustration. "No! I was so close! I won't let you stop me!" Kurome screamed as a megaphone appeared in her hands. "Even if you try, I won't die. I can't die. So long as hatred exists, so will I!"

"That's where you're wrong." Red Void told her. "When we're done with you, you won't exist ever again."

A portal appeared behind Neptune and Nepgear popped her body through it. "Neptune!" She grabbed Neptune and pulled her back. "Are you okay?"

Neptune smiled lightly. "I will be." She looked back at the Voids. "I'm sorry that I couldn't save any of you."

"Don't apologize," Green Void told her.

"After all," Black Void smiled as she looked back at Neptune.

"You saved us by killing us." White Void finished for them. "And now we'll save you and the rest of the worlds."

After Neptune was pulled through the portal, it closed and all the CPU spirits glared at Kurome. "If you hadn't pooled all the Fearicite together," Black Void told Kurome, "we wouldn't have been able to come together like this."

The next thing Kurome knew several spirits were grabbing her from every which angle as they all ascended to the manifestation of Fearicite in the sky.

"Let me go!" Kurome thrashed and struggled but she couldn't move as she was dragged upwards. "Let me go! I need to have my revenge on Gamindustri!"

"Too bad," Red Void told her, "for all the people and CPUs that were tormented because of you, it's time for you to pay the price."

"NOOOOO!" Kurome screamed as everyone entered the manifestation of Fearicite, which evaporated into nothingness, which caused the red sky to turn back to normal.

On the ground, Neptune, Nepgear, Croire and the other Neptune all looked up in awe as it disappeared. And while Histoire was also there, she was smiling as she could feel not only the Fearicite disappearing, but also Kurome's very being.

"...There was still some good in them, huh?" Neptune whispered softly, smiling to herself as tears started to fall from her eyes. "I...I'm so glad."

Histoire lowered her head slightly. "To all the CPUs who ever existed in Gamworld, thank you, all of you, for stopping that monster."

(-)

The next day in Lastation...

Steamax entered a dimly lit room. It was a very large room that had been used to house the C.I.D. when it wasn't in use. "I got your message, come on out." He said when he walked past the eighth pillar.

"You really are spectacular." A male voice spoke up and Anonydeath walked out from behind a shadow. "So where is the other one?"

"Do you mean me?" A third voice spoke up and Brave walked into the area from another shadowed portion of the room. "I've been here all night, waiting for you two."

"Great!" Anonydeath clapped his hands together. "Now that you're both here, I wanted to inform you that I've been busy since that big battle, gathering information and compiling it together."

"And we should trust you, why?" Steamax asked Anonydeath.

"Because, Steamboy," Anonydeath waggled his finger, "I used to work with Kei and Noire, remember? I knew all sorts of dealings that were going down. I had to re-establish contact with all of these people, but I think you'll want to deal with them sooner rather than later." He pulled out a flash drive and tossed it to Steamax. Turning to Brave, Anonydeath spoke to him. "And how would you like to deal with the remains of Azna=Leb's organization?"

"...They will be a problem, huh?" Brave nodded as Anonydeath sent him some information. "So that's where their warehouses are located, huh?"

"The reprogramming of the Progbots hasn't completely gone through yet." Steamax told him. "Take as many as you need and take out those warehouses, I'll deal with these people."

"Affirmative." Brave nodded and turned to walk off.

As Brave walked away, Steamax turned to Anonydeath. "I do not trust you, but if this list is accurate, then that's almost all of the leaders of commerce and finance in here except for a few."

"The ones that aren't in there are as clean as can be, all things considered." Anonydeath told him. "The dirtiest thing I can find with the head banker is that he threatens to call loans in before they're due with high interest rates if people don't do what he says."

"Very well." Steamax nodded and disappeared.

"Hmm, I guess I should go and get ready now." Anonydeath said and left.

(-)

In an unknown location...

"So gentlemen," an old man spoke up as he sat at the head of a table with everyone in the same room as he was, "are we in agreement?"

"Yes." They nodded.

"To think that Kei would try to rule this nation without us." A young man smirked, getting chuckles from the rest. "That little girl running things now is nowhere near as bad as her bitch of a dead sister was. It's too bad that she's not as sexy as Black Void was. I would have loved to have deflowered a goddess."

There were more chuckles in the room.

"Anyway," the man at the front of the table continued, "we have everything ready now, we'll get our troops, those enhanced progbots and..."

"Die." A soft voice said from behind the old man.

"And die, yes." The man nodded, before his eyes widened. "Wha..?!" He found that he was having trouble trying to finish that sentence as his head was currently on the table and his body was on the floor.

The air behind him shimmered and Steamax appeared with a sword that was dripping blood, his eyes glowing. "I was afraid of this. Unlike with Lady Noire, I will not allow Lady Uni to deal with traitors like all of you. Your armies are being decimated as we speak thanks to Brave." Steamax threw several ninja stars, hitting everyone in the room in either their heads or throats, killing all of them instantly. "I refuse to allow Lady Uni to be done in by a conspiracy to overthrow her."

(-)

In another part of Lastation...

Brave's sword erupted in flames as he swung it out at the enemy progbots, cutting through and melting them while the progbots he brought with him were destroying equipment, progbots and even people who tried to fight back. Brave opened his shoulder cannons up and fired a blast, killing several workers and destroying even more progbots in the process. "Remember! No one who was working here gets out alive! I refuse to let this cancer to spread!"

The progbots beeped an affirmative as they destroyed more and more of the building they were in.

The death of many important people and the destruction of various labs and facilities across Lastation would last late into the day, finally ending as the sun began to set.

Walking onto the Basilicom grounds, Brave looked around for a moment before nodding. "How did things go on your end, Steamax?"

The air shimmered and Steamax revealed himself sitting in a nearby tree. "Very well. I only targeted those who were close to Lady Noire's council and the ones who directly funded them. The rest are either useful idiots or had no clue about what was going on. Thankfully the number I had to deal with wasn't as much as I initially thought. How about you?"

"I lost all my progbots," Brave told him, "but all the factories and workers of those factories have been dealt with."

"Good." Steamax nodded to him. "The last thing Lady Uni needs is to bloody her hands if she doesn't need to. You continue to guard her in plain view."

"And you'll continue to defend her from the shadows." Brave finished for him and Steamax nodded. "...I do like it. Should our lady ever need to fight, we must make sure to ensure that that she never distrusts or dislikes humanity like her sister did."

"I agree." Steamax nodded.

For Uni's sake, there was nothing they wouldn't do to ensure that she would be protected.

(-)

A couple of days later in Lowee...

"Are we all ready?" Financier asked over the megaphone as she looked at the crowds. "Alright, we've contacted Planeptune and..." A purple and black portal appeared in the city square. "Alright, everyone, go through that, that'll take us to Planeptune."

Rom, Ram, Linda and IF helped direct traffic into the portal before following after everyone else had gone through. Once they were through, the portal closed.

Which was a good thing as the winds in the nation started to pick up while dark clouds formed over-head and it quickly turned into violent storms that destroyed buildings with ease.

(-)

In Leanbox...

Chika sighed as the people of the nation made their way through the portal. Several of the more pregnant women had to be helped through as they were having trouble walking. "I don't know how I feel..." She sighed softly.

"Well..." Compa spoke up, smiling. "Nep Nep said her world is really nice and so are the CPUs there. Besides, you said you missed her, so you'll get to see Nep Nep again before we leave."

Chika perked up and nearly fell over as the ground began to shake violently. "Let's get going."

"Everyone else is through, Chu." Warechu said as he, 5pb. and Gust walked up to the group with Peashy and Filyn following after them.

"Alright." Chika said and looked around, sighing. "I know it's weird, but I'll miss this place."

"...Even the breeding pits?" Compa asked.

"I was born down there, so yes." Chika nodded and walked through the portal, followed by Gust, Warechu, Compa, Peashy and finally Filyn.

Moments after the portal closed, several giant tentacles burst through the walls and ground as an inhuman scream was heard.

(-)

In Lastation...

Standing at the top of the steps to the Basilicom with her arms crossed, Uni watched as people went through the portal. Progbots and Brave were keeping things organized and orderly so that no one was trampled or pushed over. "Steamax," she said without looking anywhere, "has everyone been evacuated?"

"Yes." Steamax replied to her. "Even the criminals in lock-up are ready to go through."

"Good." Uni said as she watched the crowd of people slowly thin out as they went through the portal. "I wonder what Neptune's reality is really like."

"One that's not ruled by fear, hate and death can't be too bad." Steamax told her. "Besides, you can think of this as a fresh start. You don't need to be a CPU in that world if you don't want to."

Uni was silent as she mulled over that as the last of the civilians went through the portal, followed by the security forces as they pushed several criminals through the portal.

After everyone was done, Brave, Steamax and Uni stood in front of the portal. Looking at her robots, Uni gave them an uncertain look. "I don't know what I'm going to do in the future."

"Whatever it is, Lady Uni," Brave spoke up, "I will follow you."

"Same here." Steamax nodded.

"Thank you." Uni smiled and the three walked through the portal to Planeptune.

Several moments later, a massive earthquake ripped across the land, causing the buildings to shake and collapse, crashing into themselves and quickly turning what was once a shining city into a large pile of rubble.

None of the progbots that were patrolling the empty city survived.

(-)

In Hyperdimension...

Standing in front of the Basilicom, IF looked around in some annoyance. "Jeez, Nep. You go and disappear for like twelve days and now you need every guild member in Gamindustri to show up at the Basilicom and for what?"

When a large purple and black portal suddenly ripped open in front of the Basilicom and people started walking through it, IF got her answer. "Oh, that answers that."

There were a few pregnant women in the front that looked like they were about to go into labor any moment and Compa and the other Planeptune nurses quickly rushed to assist them. As the wave of people didn't slow down, IF quickly started issuing orders to the guild members to help get people clear of the Basilicom so others could come through.

As the wave continued unabated, IF mentally swore at her friend for not giving them enough of a warning about this. "She better have a dang good story to tell."

"If you're talking about Lady Neptune," a maid spoke up, causing IF to look at her. Next to the maid was a blue haired woman and a woman with short, red hair and horns on her head stood next to her. "Do not worry, she will." The maid smiled at IF. "My name is Financier and this is Mina." She gestured to the blue-haired woman, "and Artisan," she gestured to the redhead. "We'll help direct the people." IF nodded, thankful for the help.

"Oh, there's one more..." Mina trailed off as a large robot walked through that some of the people recognized as CFW Brave. Everyone tensed up for a fight and Brave just ignored them and started to help direct traffic and making sure that no one fell down or got lost.

Privately, IF could admit it was nice to have a big, scary robot directing traffic, but she would certainly need to keep an eye on him for now.

"And there are others too." Financier pointed back to RED, B-Sha, Cave and MAGES., who were all helping direct traffic as well.

(-)

Meanwhile inside the Basilicom the workers were busy answering phones and signing papers while Umio, Histoire, Nepgear and Uzume were directing traffic and making sure that people got what they needed.

"I hope Nepsy gets back soon, this is..." Uzume stopped speaking, as did everyone else. In fact, everyone just stopped as a black and purple portal opened in the main room.

Everyone watched as people started to walk out of the portal. The first one through the portal was recognizable to Nepgear and Histoire as Chika walked through the portal.

The next arrivals shocked everyone in the room.

Peashy, Rom, Ram, Uni and Steamax all came through the portal, though all of them had slightly different looks than they were used to. After them was Compa, IF, a blue-haired bunny girl, a slender girl with green hair and the large rat, Warechu, who was close to Compa. What was most shocking to everyone about IF and Compa was how IF looked like she had multiple colored skin and some scars on her body while Compa had metal hands and arms.

A small girl with red hair done up in twin tails and an eye-patch walked through, followed by the older-looking Neptune. And finally, at the end, a wheelchair was pushed through the portal as the CPU of Planeptune came through, being pushed by a Nepgear in a maid outfit.

The final woman that came through the portal had everyone gasping in shock.

"...What?" The woman looked around in confusion and looked at Neptune, who was giggling. "...Do I REALLY look that similar to this Arfoire person?"

Neptune nodded while giggling. "Uh huh. I told you, didn't I?"

"NEPTUNE!" Nepgear suddenly ran up to her sister and grabbed her, pulling her into a hug. "You're home!" She had questions, lots of them, but for right now, she was just happy that Neptune was home and alive.

"Nepgear!" Neptune smiled as she hugged Nepgear back. "I'm home."

Before anything more could be said, Histoire's voice came from Neptune's pockets. "I do appreciate a touching scene, but could you let me out of here already?"

The sisters broke the hug and Neptune reached into her parka's pocket and pulled out a damaged tome before opening it, revealing a badly injured Histoire. "Sorry, Histy, but I wasn't going to let you stay in that world. So this way, if you really are linked to the fate that world, we'll know soon enough."

Histoire from Gamworld sighed and just smiled softly. "To give someone who failed like me another chance, you really are the hope of the world."

"Excuse me," the native Histoire spoke up, "I want to say, before anything else... Welcome home, Neptune."

Neptune smiled at her. "I'm home, Histy. I'm home everyone. And I've got a heck of a story to tell you."

The End

* * *

And that's it. There's no more to the story. I hope you've enjoyed the ride and...

"HOLD IT, BUCKO!"

Uh, Neptune, what are you doing here?

"You can't just end the story like this! Sure, it's a nice ending, but it feels incomplete!"

...How so?

"Oh please, I saw you write a continuation after this."

...No fair, you peeked!

"Hee hee hee! You can't fool the main character!"

Alright, fine. I was planning on surprising everyone but I guess I'll announce it here. There's more to come everyone. The main story's done, time for an epilogue now!

"Mwahahahahahaha! For all the torment you put me through, I get to spoil your surprise!"

See you tomorrow everyone. Sheesh! You'd think she was mad at me or something.


	112. Epilogue

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

And here's the epilogue.

* * *

Epilogue

Histoire shook her head as she floated through the Basilicom. It had been almost a week since Neptune had returned from her last adventure and after realizing that Neptune couldn't walk, Histoire had ordered Neptune into the medical bay to get looked at.

The fact that Neptune was paralyzed from the waist down was troublesome. What was even more troubling to Histoire had been hearing about the effects of the Fearicite that Neptune had been infected with. Thankfully that information was only known to her, Nepgear and Uzume and none of the staff had been allowed to know about what happened to Neptune.

Histoire knew Neptune was holding information back as she hadn't told her, Nepgear and Uzume the full story yet, but Neptune promised that she would as soon as she was feeling better. Considering how utterly exhausted Neptune had looked, Histoire agreed to let Neptune have a few days to do nothing but rest.

Histoire thought about the people from that other world that had come with Neptune and while most of them were effectively quarantined to the Western side of the city, as that had a lot of open hotels and apartments that had just finished being rennovated. 'The amount of money needed to put all of them up will get out of hand in a few months.'

Still, the fact that there were people from the other world helping the guild agents police the new arrivals was helpful. MAGES., Cave, B-Sha and, to Histoire's utter shock, Brave, were very, very good at keeping everyone in check. "To think that another version of one of the four felons could be such a good person." Sighing, she thought about the version of Brave from her world and how, in the end, he hadn't been a bad person, just misguided and on the wrong side of the law.

She wasn't sure what to think of her other self, since she had nothing but praise for Neptune. The other thing she found odd was that of the group that Neptune brought with her, most of them had decided to take up the extra guest rooms temporarily. Which was fine with Histoire, since there was going to be a shortage of places to live in Planeptune for awhile as they settled an entire dimension's worth of people into a new world.

No, that wasn't what Histoire found odd. What she found odd was that Rom, Ram, Peashy, the other Nepgear and Chrome all took turns staying in Neptune's room and watching over her while she slept. Though, she did find it kind of funny to see her Nepgear getting upset that Neptune was being doted on by others so much and she wanted to watch after her sister too. "I think that she's finally understanding how Neptune feels when Vert kept trying to steal her away from Neptune." Histoire said to herself, giggling.

Rounding a corner, she nearly crashed into her other self, who was moving around slowly while feeling the walls. "Oh goodness! I'm sorry, other me."

The other Histoire smiled at her. "You use that phrase as well, huh?" She let out an amused chuckle. "You really are similar to your daughter."

Histoire had a confused look on her face. "I have never had children."

The other Histoire shook her head. "No... You have a daughter, three of them. Neptune, Nepgear and Uzume. At least, Neptune called you her mother."

Histoire stared in surprise. "...Neptune called me that?"

"Yes." The other Histoire nodded and sighed softly. "Can I ask you about the third one? Uzume. Is she... Does she have another personality known as Kurome?"

"Kurome was..." Histoire began and stopped as someone interrupted her.

"Kurome was Uzume's original self," a male voice spoke up as Umio floated up behind them. "Due to sealing herself away and feeling nothing but loneliness, anger and other negative emotions, her being split into two. Kurome might be Uzume's original self, but Uzume is closer to what she was like when she was the CPU. Though her real personality is that of her HDD form, Orange Heart."

"I see..." The other Histoire had a troubled look on her face. "...I know that Neptune promised she would explain, but I must ask you, good sir, would Uzume ruin the world with her powers?"

"No." Umio said. "I guarantee you that Uzume would never do that. She fought against Dark CPUs for decades while she was sealed away. Why do you ask?"

"...I will let Neptune explain when she decides to finally tell everyone what happened in Gamworld. But, if it's alright, may I speak to Uzume?"

"Did someone say my name?" Uzume asked as she walked into the hall area. "Oh! It's Umio, Histy and Blind Histy."

"Blind Histy?" The blind Histoire said and nodded. "Yes, that would be easier to tell the difference between us, huh?" Blind Histoire turned to Uzume and floated over to her slowly. "Could you come here, Uzume, I need to verify something."

"Uh..." Uzume blinked and walked over to Blind Histoire. "Right, so what do..?" Her eyes widened as Blind Histoire put her hands on Uzume's cheeks and a soft glow covered the both of them for a moment.

"I see..." Blind Histoire smiled as she let go. "Thank you." She could feel that this Uzume was very similar to her Uzume, before Kurome had corrupted her. "I'm glad..." She said to Uzume, "that you're a good person."

Uzume just grinned and rubbed the back of her head. "Aw shucks, that's nice." Her eyes went white and blank. "I mean! No! That's not why I'm here! Nepsy's gone!"

"HUH?!" The other three all yelled in shock.

"I went to see how she was doing and she, the wheelchair, Chromesy, Gearsy, Maid Gearsy, Romsy and Ramsy were all missing. I saw Unisy coming out of the bathroom and she said she was going to be busy today and I haven't seen the others yet."

"Then where..?" Histoire frowned in confusion. "Enough, let's look around the Basilicom, I'm sure that..." She trailed off as she saw Peashy, Filyn and Uni walk down the hallway with several plates with pudding cups on them. "...How about we follow those three?"

"Good idea." Umio said and the four quickly made their way after those three.

When they saw them enter Neptune's office, both Histoire and Uzume were confused, but they followed after and entered the office.

What they saw shocked them to their core.

Neptune, Rom, Ram, and Chrome were doing paperwork while the two Nepgears were helping gather it up and organize it for them. Both of them were also helping doing the paperwork.

"Jeez, big sis..." Rom gave Neptune an annoyed look. "You teach us to be good CPUs but you're so far behind on your paperwork too."

"I'm only a few months behind." Neptune protested Rom. "It's not like back in your Lowee when you were behind by years."

"Goodness," Nepgear giggled softly, "years? Like how we were when I finally got you free from the graveyard, Neptune?"

"Nah, worse." Neptune shook her head. "Like, sixty years behind or something. There were spiders crawling over some of the papers."

"Eww..." Both Nepgears grimaced in disgust.

"Yeah and... Oh! It's Histy, Histy, Umio and Uzume!" Neptune smiled and waved. "I'm feeling a bit better now. So I thought I'd do some paperwork before I get too tired and need more sleep."

"...Who are you and what did you do to Neptune?" Histoire asked as she looked at Neptune in worry.

Neptune just gave her a smile. "Histy... Let's just say that I had to come face-to-face with all of the worst parts of me and... Well, I can do better." Memories of the things that Green Nightmare, Iris Nightmare, White Nightmare, Kei and others had said to her over the course of her adventure went through her head.

"I tried to convince her to rest, but she insisted on at least doing this much," Chrome told them as she looked at the paper in front of her. "A new convention center?"

"That one's good." Neptune told Chrome. "Don't worry, Histy, if I get Planeptune's shares up high enough my back will recover just fine."

"True," Blind Histoire nodded, "your body should already be healing."

Histoire looked at Neptune and frowned softly at how tired and worn out she still looked. "Neptune..." The CPU looked at her in confusion. "I want you to take a few more days off."

"I'll be fine." Neptune waved her off. "Besides, I have help, so it won't take too long."

"Uh huh," Ram nodded, smiling as she finished up her stack and handed it to Nepgear to look over. "We'll be done in twenty minutes."

"Fine," Histoire sighed, "but a good CPU knows when to rest and let their body recover."

Neptune giggled at Histoire. "First time I ever heard you try to convince me not to work. Alright, we'll finish up here and then we'll go and play some games everyone."

"YEAH!" Everyone cheered at the same time.

"Here, let me help, Nepsy." Uzume walked in, grabbed a stack of unfinished paperwork from the maid Nepgear and sat down to work on it.

Blind Histoire looked in Histoire's general direction with a knowing smile on her face. "And you say you aren't her mother." She said softly.

Histoire looked at Neptune and smiled. "...Yeah... I guess I am."

End Epilogue 1

* * *

Yes, you read that right, Epilogue ONE.

I... Uh, just kind of couldn't stop writing stuff post-main story. But I hope you enjoy it. I'll tell you when it's done.

I guess, in the end, I didn't want to see this end just yet either.


	113. Epilogue 2

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

And here's the second Epilogue chapter, it's also insanely long. Longer than most of the chapters, now that I think about it.

Since I can't answer guest reviews via PM, I'll say this, no, I don't hate Neptune. I'm just so sadistic that both Esdeath and Iris Heart are in awe of me. Mwhahahahahahaha!

* * *

Epilogue 2

"Morning, Compa." IF said as she looked at her friend.

"Morning, Iffy." Compa smiled at her as the two walked through the Basilicom. "How have you been adapting to this world?"

"Better than I thought I would." IF admitted and she blushed softly. "Linda certainly has liked it. Too bad she, Gust, Warechu and Mina are helping Brave, MAGES., Cave and B-Sha over on the Western side of the city." Fortunately, there hadn't been too many problems, but things were only going to get worse if something wasn't done about them soon.

Compa giggled and put her metal hand over her mouth. "I wonder why Nep Nep wanted us to meet her in the living room?"

"I dunno." IF answered her and shrugged. "We've been here for almost a month and it still feels weird."

"Hey!" Neptune, who was sitting in her wheelchair with a blanket over her legs, smiled at them. "Iffy! Compa! I'm glad you two came."

"Well, the most we've done is lounge about and go walking around outside." IF told her. "Your city is so... Different."

Neptune giggled. "Well, I figure that it's been long enough and I found some people that I know you'll want to see." She smiled at the confused look that IF gave her. "Come on in, girls!"

When the door to the outdoor patio opened and four people walked in, IF's eyes widened and she gasped while her eyes started to instantly water. "It..."

"We're here, Lady Neptune," the one with red hair spoke up, smiling at her. "What did you need us for? Oh! It's IF."

"M...Marvy?" IF asked, her voice uncertain. "CC2? Falcom... And Falcom?" She recognized the dusky-skinned cat-like girl and Falcom almost immediately. What was most surprising was that she was seeing two Falcoms, one when they were younger, who had a ponytail and one who had short hair, was a bit taller and curvier, which IF knew Falcom only developed like that when she had grown up.

"Hey!" CC2 smiled at IF. "It's been awhile since I saw you, but what happened to your skin? Did you play with body paint or something?"

IF took trembling steps before she suddenly broke into a run and hugged the first person she reached, which happened to be Marvy.

"Huh?" Marvy looked at IF, who was crying while hugging her. "What happened, IF?"

Neptune smiled at them. "Well, see, this Iffy's from another world and she was friends with you four, but you all died in a fire and she's the only one who survived, so I thought it would be nice for her to see you again."

Compa smiled as she looked at IF. "Nep Nep," she looked at Neptune, smiling happily. "Thank you. You have no idea how much this means to Iffy."

Neptune smiled and her eyes lit up as two new people walked in. "Nep Nep! We're here and... Huh? How come I see another Iffy and me? And why does the me have metal arms?"

"Huh?" Both IF and Compa turned to see the newcomers enter the room.

Neptune smiled. "Compa, Iffy! Meet Full Metal Compa and Blazing Girl Iffy from my latest adventure."

"Wow!" Full Metal Compa smiled as she saw the newcomers. "These are your Iffy and me, Nep Nep? That's so cool!"

"Well..." Neptune trailed off as another IF and Compa walked in behind them. "I also invited my daughters too."

"Dang it, Nep-ko!" The new IF yelled, blushing hard. "Don't call me that! It's embarrassing!"

The newly arrived Compa just smiled in amusement. "It's okay, Iffy, we're basically sisters since Nep Nep is our mother." She giggled when IF groaned in dismay.

"...Nep..." The Hyperdimension IF gave her long-time friend an exasperated look. "I trust you have a really good story, right?"

"Uh huh," Neptune nodded, the amusement on her face was palatable. "But there's others who should be here soon." She turned to the glass doors that led out onto the patio as they opened up.

"Jeez," one of the newcomers groused in annoyance. "First you disappar for twelve days for no reason and then you don't want to see us for almost a month."

"Calm down, Noire..." The tall blonde next to her said. "Let's just be thankful that Neptune's back and wants to see us again."

Neptune smiled and moved the wheelchair around to face them. "Noire... Vert... Blanc..." Her eyes watered up. "I missed all of you."

Noire had a concerned look on her face as she looked at Neptune. While Neptune looked tired but healthy, but there was a sense that she was fragile, like a porcelain doll or a plate of fine china, and would shatter with only a little bit of pressure applied to her.

Both Vert and Blanc had similar feelings as they looked at their friend. Before they could say anything, a yellow blur ran into the room yelling loudly. "NEPTUNA!" The cheerful voice cried out and leaped at Neptune.

"ACK!" Neptune cringed, waiting for the crash.

"NO!" A new voice was heard and another yellow blur rushed into the room, crashing into the first yellow blur, sending both blurs to the ground, which were revealed to be two Peashys. "No hurting Neptuna! She doesn't need bad tackles!" The other Peashy said while pinning the first Peashy to the floor.

"Oh wow!" A voice spoke up. "Lookie, Rom! Uni! There's another Peashy!"

"Uh huh..." Rom said in a soft voice as she and Ram, both in their pastel coats, Rom in her blue coat and hat and Ram in her pink coat and hat, looked at the scene. "Where did the other Peashy come from?"

"...Did Nep-ko decide to adopt another Peashy?" Ultra IF asked as she looked at Neptune.

"Nope." Neptune shook her head and smiled as the Ultradimension versions of Noire, Vert and Blanc came into the room after their Hyperdimension counterparts. "Hey, where's Plutie?"

"Neppy!" Said person ran into the room after everyone. "Sorry, I overslept."

Hyper Noire frowned softly. "So, Neptune... Why haven't you called us since you got back? And why do you look so worn out?"

"Because Nepsy's been working," Uzume said as she, Umio and Histoire came into the room. "And she should be resting."

All the newcomers looked at Neptune in absolute shock and Neptune just giggled while sticking her tongue out. "Anyway, everyone! Come on out!"

Uzume stepped to the side and everyone watched as another version of Rom, Ram, Uni and two Nepgears, one in a maid outfit and one in her normal outfit walked into the room, followed by a girl with red hair in twin tails and an eye-patch and finally an older-looking woman.

"Oh wow!" Ram's eyes gleamed as she and Rom ran up to their counterparts and discovered that the other Rom and Ram were slightly bigger than they were. "Cool! Now there's another me and Rom! We can play all the party games now!"

Her counterpart giggled nervously. "Well, that might be fun."

Rom looked at her counterpart and timidly reached out a hand. "H-hello."

"Hey." The taller Rom smiled at her.

"Wow, there's another me?" Uni said as she walked towards her other self, who seemingly oozed a level of confidence that Uni wished she had.

That Uni wasn't even looking at her, instead she was looking at the two Noires who were standing next to each other with an expression that bordered on disbelief. "...N...Noire?" Both of them nodded in confusion and before anyone could say anything more, the Uni from Gamworld was running up to Hyper Noire and hugged her tightly, sobbing openly.

"Ack!" Noire jerked in surprise and her face turned bright red. "H-hey, what are..."

"Noire," Neptune interrupted her. "Let her cry." Noire gave Neptune a confused look and Neptune sighed. "I promise, I'll explain it, okay?"

Both Blancs walked over to the taller twins and they looked confused as both of them gave them guarded, if not outright hostile looks. "What's wrong?" The Blanc with the red miko outfit asked.

"Rom, Ram," the woman behind them said softly. "Calm down, they aren't the same person." She sighed when they remained tense. "Just relax, okay? No one will hurt anyone here."

"Sorry," Rom said and let out a small sigh. "It's just... Some bad memories is all."

"I see," the Blanc in the blue outfit nodded, "I can..." She trailed off and narrowed her eyes. Walking forward, she stopped in front of Rom and grabbed the girl's shirt and pushed it against Rom's body. "...B...Boobs?"

Rom glared at her. "Yeah, so?"

Blanc let go and took a step back, an utterly defeated look on her face. "I can't believe it, even my younger sister from another dimension has bigger boobs than me."

The miko-clad Blanc sank to her knees while looking up at the sky in pure despair.

"Oh wow!" Ram suddenly grinned as she got behind her counterpart. "This me has a really big butt too!"

"HEY!" Gamworld Ram yelled and put her hands over her butt as she turned around, blushing hard. "I can't help it that I have a big butt!"

Hyper Vert was giggling at the antics, but then she looked at the redhead and her eyes widened. "Noire, Blanc... Look at the redhead."

The Noire that was getting hugged tightly while she returned it awkwardly, looked at the redheaded little girl and her eyes widened as she gasped. "N...No way." Memories of another redhead with a similar face and hairstyle entered her mind. "That..."

"I know that she looks like that villain," Neptune interrupted her, "but her name's Filyn."

"Filyn..?" Plutia blinked and tilted her head. "But that name rhymes with villain. Are we sure she's not a bad guy?"

Filyn face-faulted. "GAH! Why does everyone do that?!"

Chrome gave Plutia an angry look, but she took a deep breath to calm down. "Neptune, I think we should talk about what happened while you were in our world."

Neptune nodded. "Well, it all started when I wanted a pizza pocket and I used the microwave after Nepgear gave me a new phone."

"You shouldn't have done that." Both Noires, Verts and Blancs said at the same time while deadpanning.

"Awww..." Nepgear pouted. "That's not fair."

Neptune giggled in amusement. "I sure did miss this. Come on, everyone needs to sit down and listen." She smiled as the Falcoms, CC2, Marvy and all three IFs and Compas grabbed some chairs and moved the couches around before plopping themselves on the couches. Both versions of Peashy ran to sit near Neptune while the CPUs moved to the couches with the Gamworld CPUs sitting behind Neptune while her other friends sat on the couches opposite of her. Uzume and Umio grabbed some chairs and sat down not far from the group while both Histoires floated into the room to observe.

"Well, imagine my shock when I'm flying through the air, not able to transform and there's a bunch of trees down below."

Everyone listened with rapt attention as Neptune told them the story of her adventure in Gamworld and what Lowee was really like.

As the story progressed and the confrontation with the Void of Lowee happened, both Blancs, along with the smaller Rom and Ram stared at Neptune in shock as she told them what White Void had done to her little sisters.

When Neptune got to the part of White Void stomping on Rom, both Blancs suddenly stood up, growling audibly. "NEPTUNE!" They both yelled at the same time.

"ACK!" Neptune jerked in surprise, her eyes white and blank in shock.

"Tell me that you killed that bitch." Hyper Blanc growled as the air around her was crackling and sparking.

"Because if you didn't, I'll be more than happy to hunt her down and rearrange her body in the most painful way I can think of." Ultra Blanc snarled, her eyes glowing red.

Next to Neptune, both of the Gamworld twins were tense with Ram trembling and Rom fighting the urge to charge up her magic. The memories of what White Void had done to them when she lost her temper came flooding back in force and it was taking everything that they had to not try to blast these two look-a-likes at that moment.

"Well.. I fought her..." Neptune scratched her cheek. "And she had another form called a Nightmare form. She kind of looked like a big beast of some sort. Like a big cat or something?" Neptune shrugged, it wasn't important. "She really beat me up good, but I got rid of her weapon. Chromey here used it to kill White Nightmare."

"Oh." Both Blancs calmed down and looked at Chrome before bowing at the same time. "Thank you so much for killing her." They said at the same time.

The bigger versions of Rom and Ram stared at the Blancs in shock as the urge to fight the two Blancs faded and they relaxed.. "...Big sis Neptune..." Rom said softly. "Is... Is this what you meant when you said that you knew our real big sister?" Neither of them had ever seen Blanc ever calm down until she had vented her anger and was panting and grinning.

Neptune nodded. "Uh huh. I told you that the real Blanc would never hurt you two."

Both Blancs straightened up and looked at Neptune in surprise. "Neptune?" They asked at the same time.

Neptune winked at them. "What? You think I wanted them to think that White Void was their sister when I know you two would never hurt them?" She knew that White Void, after dying and being freed from the Fearicite's influence, was a lot nicer and kinder, but no one needed to know about that right now. "Well, after that, I was kind of banged up and I couldn't walk for awhile, so I helped Rom and Ram, with Chrome's help, get the public to like them and even solved some problems. Besides, we had to fix some airships before we went to Leanbox."

Ultra Vert frowned softly. "I'm almost worried about what that Leanbox was like."

"...Well, it was more like Lewdbox than Leanbox." Neptune giggled while blushing hard as she remembered some of the things that happened there. Or how Chika had given her kisses whenever the two had been alone for any length of time since arriving in Gamindustri.

Which was thankfully not too often as Chika offered to help manage the paperwork so Neptune could rest and recover more.

Neptune shook her head and then described what happened in Leanbox, and although she toned it down, as she didn't think they needed to know about the overly sexual things that happened, it was near impossible to describe Green Void in any way but lewd.

When Neptune explained about the fact that Green Void had killed six previous sisters and was going to execute Peashy when they arrived, both Verts suddenly jumped to their feet, a furious expression on their faces.

"HOW DARE SHE?!" Hyper Vert screamed in anger. "I WOULD RATHER DESTROY MY GAMING COLLECTION AND CHOP MY OWN BREASTS OFF THAN HURT A LITTLE SISTER!"

"Especially six cute little sisters!" Ultra Vert continued, a truly distressed expression on her face.

"Well, I fought her after that, she then turned into her nightmare form and..." Neptune paused. "...It was like she merged with a spider and naughty tentacles for that form and she nearly, um..." She turned bright red. "Did... Very bad lewd things to me and everyone else before I broke her Fearicite Crystal and then Chromey killed her."

The Peashy from Gamworld looked at Hyper Vert in confusion before standing up and walking over to her. "...Do you mean it?" Vert looked down at her. "...You wouldn't hurt Pea?"

Suddenly Peashy was grabbed and lifted up into a hug as Vert openly cried. "No! I could never hurt a little sister! I would never do something so cruel! I've wanted a little sister so much since Neptune, Noire and Blanc all have little sisters."

Neptune smiled. "Well, about that, Verty... Hey, P-ko." Both Peashys looked at her. "I meant the one getting hugged by Verty," she ruffled her daughter's hair. "Would you like to have a little sister?" Vert stared at Neptune in absolute shock. "How about it, P-Ko? Do you want to get to know your real big sister?"

Peashy looked confused. "Neptuna... Does this mean I won't see you again?"

"Nope!" Neptune smiled at her. "After you get settled in you can come back and visit any time."

Before anyone could say anything more, Peashy was put down and Vert walked over to Neptune before shocking everyone by grabbing Neptune and hugging her tightly, smothering her face into the blonde's breasts.

"I think you're going to kill her if you keep her smothered in your boobs for too long." Chrome commented, an amused expression on her face.

Vert just smirked at Chrome. "And do you really think I haven't hugged her like this before?" Still, she let go of the hug and Neptune plopped back into her wheelchair, her face slightly red.

Neptune had a goofy grin on her face as she giggled. "Well, that was pleasant."

"Pervert." Both Blancs muttered, though the one in blue was thinking about ways she could use this in a future book.

'Too bad Vert didn't kiss Neptune.' Hyper Blanc thought to herself, that would have been some prime book material right there.

Not far away, Marvy giggled in amusement. "Well, that's interesting, huh? So, Lady Neptune, what happened next?"

"Well," Neptune looked at Chrome, who nodded. "There was a fifth nation, known as Eden, but it was a short trip." She looked at Plutia and bit her lip before sighing. "The Void of Eden..." She pointed at Plutia, "was you."

"EH?!" Everyone gasped with Ultra IF suddenly going pale and trembling at the thought of a Iris Heart that was even scarier than Green or White Voids had been.

"...Neppy?" Plutia had a sad look on her face. "...What did I do?"

Chrome answered for Neptune. "...Eden was my nation sixty years ago." She gave Plutia a stern look. "You came into the world, stole my nation, stole Filyn's eye, stole the lives of everyone who lived there, turned it into a swamp and even stole your own little sister's life."

"...Oh." Plutia looked really troubled by that. "...Do you hate me?" She asked while looking at Chrome.

Chrome closed her eyes. "...Hate is too soft of a word for what I feel towards you. However, I made a promise to Neptune to not hurt you if I met you. And I got my revenge on the monster that did all of that stuff."

Plutia didn't look happy, but she nodded and had a very uncomfortable look on her face.

"Well..." Neptune continued, "after that, we got out of Eden as it collapsed and..."

"Neptune," Histoire interrupted her. "Is that why you called me and asked me about what happens if a Sharicite crystal is shattered?" Neptune nodded and Histoire sighed. "I really had no clue you were suffering so much."

"Well... It got worse." Neptune explained about how she had, sometime before Eden, had gotten possessed by the Fearicite that she had shattered in Lowee and Leanbox. "And then we went to Lastation..." She looked at the Noires who were looking very uncomfortable to know what they were like in Gamworld. "...Things weren't quite what we were expecting though."

"Mind if I help tell the story?" Gamworld Uni asked and Neptune nodded.

The two started to talk about what happened in Lastation and all the twists and turns that the adventure went through at that time.

"To think Kei was so obsessed that she tried to become a CPU..." Hyper Noire sighed softly. "And to become Dark Black on top of it."

"You know," Ultra Noire said, "the me of that world sounds like she wasn't evil at all."

"She wasn't." Neptune, Chrome and Gamworld Uni all said at the same time.

"She even sacrificed herself to save the city and everyone in it." Chrome continued to speak. "I hope no one minds, but I need to get up and stretch."

"Yes, I agree." Histoire said as everyone but Neptune got up from where they were sitting and stetched. "How about we get some food delivered up here and you can continue the story. I assume that Planeptune is the final stop?" Neptune nodded. "Okay, let's come back to the story after we all have a chance to walk around and stretch then. An hour perhaps?" The others nodded, that sounded good.

Chrome was about to leave when she felt a tug on her clothes. Turning, she saw Plutia standing next to her. "Yes?"

"Can we talk in private, please?"

Neptune watched, frowning in concern as Chrome nodded at the two left.

"Neptune," Hyper Noire spoke up as she walked over to the small CPU. "...Why haven't you tried to get up? And why are you in a wheelchair?"

Neptune just gave Noire a wry smile. "I can't feel anything from my waist down, Noire." Noire's eyes widened in shock. "I'm getting better, but..." She grabbed the blanket and pulled it up and focused as she tried to lift her leg. "See? I can move my leg a little bit."

The leg had barely moved.

"Neptune..." Noire said softly. "Dammit," she growled in anger, "if only..."

"Noire," Neptune stopped her, "I'm glad that you, Vert and Blanc weren't there."

Mental images of the redheaded Noire falling from a nuclear explosion and dying in front of them still haunted her. "Because..." Neptune's eyes watered up. "It was... So hard... To fight against my friends and..." The next thing she knew, Noire was hugging her and Neptune hugged her back, crying into her friend's chest.

Noire held Neptune as the smaller CPU trembled and cried. 'Neptune... I wish I could have been there to help you deal with what you went through.'

She knew that the story she was being told wasn't everything, but even so, it was bad enough.

After all, she had never seen Neptune look so worn out, tired and just plain defeated in her life. She rubbed Neptune's back and let her vent her emotions out. At that moment, Noire was worried that Neptune was like a glass figurine that was easily breakable.

'I won't let you get broken, Neptune.' She thought to herself.

(-)

"This is..?" Chrome looked around as she and Plutia got off the express lightway. "A forest?"

"Neppy sure upgraded Planeptune since I was here last, before we had to either walk or fly to or from the city, now we can just ride a stream of light to get out here." Plutia said before she was bathed in a white light. "We're near the portal to my world." Iris Heart said and turned around to face Chrome.

"...And what do you want?" Chrome asked, her eyes showing nothing but contempt and anger. When Iris Heart's sword formed in her hand, she responded by forming her mace. "I see, time to die then?"

"Sort of." Iris Heart said. "I'm sure that Neppy wouldn't like it if I killed you. So... I won't, but I know you want to vent, so..."

"How utterly kind of you." Chrome said, disgust dripping off of her words. "Just so you know, if not for Neptune's request, I would not hesitate to kill you."

"Fair enough." Iris Heart smiled at her. "So bring it."

(-)

Back at the Basilicom...

"Don't you want to give Neptune a hug, Blanc?" Rom asked and Blanc shook her head. "But..."

"I'll talk to her later." Blanc huffed softly and looked at the taller Rom and Ram, who were standing a few feet away from them. "...I know I can't undo what my other self did. But, even if you can't stand me, I'd like to get to know you two."

"...It...It's hard." Gamworld Rom said softly. "I'm looking at you and I'm expecting you to try and beat me up."

"I see..." Blanc said softly, looking incredibly hurt.

"Hey," the red Blanc gave Rom a stern look, "we're not going to do anything to you two. We aren't the monster that hurt you." She sighed at the way they flinched. "I'm sorry, to find out that there's a version of me that would... Who could do something so horrible to you two..." She trembled and balled her hands into fists. "How could such a thing be allowed to happen?"

"I'm sorry too." Gamworld Ram said to the others. "It's just... Ever since we were born until big sis Neptune saved us, we were beaten and abused."

"That can be hard to overcome." Hyper Blanc said softly. "...Would you like to play some games?" The otherworld twins gave Blanc a confused look as she pulled out a small case. "There are six portable consoles in this with the latest version of our fighting party game." She had a nervous look on her face. "Do you want to try Ultimate Smash?"

"...I guess we could try." Gamworld Rom answered her.

"Thank you." Hyper Blanc smiled.

It was a start, but that's all Blanc, both of them, wanted. After all, it hurt to see Rom and Ram, regardless if they were older-looking or not, be scared and distrustful of them.

(-)

Standing on the outdoor patio just outside the living room, Gamworld Uni stared into the distance as she felt, rather than saw, Steamax nearby. "If you have something to say, other me, please tell me." She turned to look at the Uni of this world.

"...I know what it's like to have an aloof older sister suddenly disappear on you." Uni told her other self. "It was awhile ago, about a decade or so, when my big sister was captured by a group of villains known as ASIC and were basically sealed away for three years."

"...You got your sister back, I'll never get mine back."

"That's not completely true." Noire, this one from Ultradimension, said as she walked out onto the patio. "I think Neptune wanted you to meet us like this because, while she's a bit of an idiot, she's got a lot of empathy in her."

"Yeah, she does." Gamworld Uni nodded. "I... I want to be a good CPU for my sister's sake. I promised her when she was dying. But I..."

"If that's all..." Noire smirked at Uni, "why not come live with me?"

"HUH?!" Both Unis looked at Noire shock.

The Ultradimension CPU rolled her eyes. "Well, I helped teach Neptune how to do CPU duties. You think I can't teach someone who's obviously smarter than she is?" Noire's face turned slightly red, "besides, it would be kind of nice to have someone around the Basilicom that I can talk to about stuff and do stuff together."

Hyper Uni gave Noire a flat look. "You're jealous that Vert got a sister and you don't have one, aren't you?"

Ultra Noire's eyes went blank and white with black circles around them. "Nowa!?"

"Figures." Hyper Uni giggled at that.

Gamworld Uni nodded. "I'll tell you right now, I might be hard to deal with."

"That's fine," Ultra Noire told her. "I'm not the easiest person to deal with myself."

(-)

Another part of the Basilicom...

"I am so jealous right now." Ultra Vert said as she, Hyper Vert and Gamworld Peashy walked through the Basilicom. "Neptune just up and offers Peashy to you?" She started to tear up and pouted. "I want a younger sister as well! It's unfair!" She stomped her foot and Hyper Vert gave her a flat stare.

"You do realize that you're being unreasonable." Hyper Vert told her counterpart. "I do admit though, I am surprised as well. I was beginning to think that I would never get a younger sister of my own without resorting to other measures."

Ultra Vert raised an eyebrow. "What other measures?"

Hyper Vert blushed softly and had a small smile on her face. "Well... I entertained the idea of marrying one of the others and combining my nation with theirs."

Ultra Vert gave her counterpart a flat stare. "...You were trying to marry Neptune?"

"At least get her interested in the idea. It would also have other benefits for the both of us. The shares of our nations are usually very far behind Noire and Blanc, if we collected our shares, well..." She grimaced softly, "we'd still be behind them, but we'd be better off than we usually are. Plus I would have Nepgear as a cute little sister and Neptune's not too bad, when she's not poking fun at you at least."

"Um..." Peashy looked at Vert in confusion. "Do you like Neptuna?"

Hyper Vert thought about it for a moment and nodded. "Yeah, I was going to warm her up to the idea by dropping hints, getting close to her and being there, but as I did that, I found myself falling in love with the goofball." Her face turned slightly pink. "I admit, I never thought that I would, but I started actually desiring her." She looked at Peashy and sighed softly. "I can't complain about having a little sister now, but part of me still wishes that I could marry Neptune."

"Why don't you?" Ultra Vert asked her counterpart.

"A big reason for why I wanted to marry her is gone now!" Hyper Vert pouted as a cloud of sadness formed over her head.

Peashy tilted her head. "Huh? You need to marry her? Why?" Both Verts looked at Peashy who just smiled at them. "Neptuna likes you too, you know!"

Hyper Vert blushed softly. "Well, that's good to know. Maybe after things settle down we'll come back and talk things out with her."

Ultra Vert shook her head. "I'm sorry, I could never see myself with Neptune or Plutia in the slightest. If I had to have a romantic partner, I'd want one who was more mature."

"Fair enough." Hyper Vert nodded, she knew that Neptune could be very immature.

(-)

In the Basilicom living room...

"Neptuna..." Peashy looked at one of the CPUs she saw as her mother in confusion. "Are you okay?" The two of them and Hyper Noire were playing a fighting game together while everyone else was out and mingling.

"Well, I can't walk, I'm worried about Chromey and Plutie," Neptune sighed heavily. "It's been about an hour and I really hope that they're okay."

Suddenly Noire paused the game and in a flash of light became Black Heart. She grabbed Neptune and picked her up out of the chair. "Then how about we go check on them?"

"Nepwoah?!" Neptune's eyes widened and she looked at Black Heart. "You could have given me some warning!" She pouted at Black Heart but then rested her head against her friend. "Let's go!"

"YAY!" Peashy yelled as she transformed into Yellow Heart.

As they walked out onto the patio, the other Noire and both Unis turned to look at them.

"Noire?" Hyper Uni frowned in confusion. "What's going on?"

"We're just going to go check on someone, that's all." Black Heart told her. "We'll be right back."

"Bye bye!" Yellow Heart waved and she and Black Heart, who was carrying Neptune, flew off to look for Plutia and Chrome.

Gamworld Uni blinked several times, rubbed her eyes and then slapped her cheeks. "...Do all versions of Peashy have giant boobs or something?!"

Both Hyper Uni and Ultra Norie sweat-dropped, but they could understand it. After all, they had similar reactions when they first saw Yellow Heart.

(-)

In Virtua Forest...

Iris Heart found herself being knocked into a tree, where she hit hard and slid to the ground. Grinning like a savage, complete with blood coming out of her mouth, she spit out a tooth and tried to get to her feet, which was hard when her right arm was dangling by her side uselessly and she was showing obvious signs of damage to her legs. "My, my, you have so much anger in you, don't you?"

Chrome was looking like she had seen better days. There were cuts all over her body, her left eye was swelling shut and she was leaning heavy on her right side. 'Five broken ribs, I think my left leg is cracked and I'm bleeding everywhere...'

Still, she was enjoying herself, especially since Iris Heart wasn't holding back, outside of lethal attacks. "Now I see why Neptune was so terrified of facing a Void version of you."

Iris Heart raised an eyebrow. "Well, I can't say that I don't deserve some of the hate I get. Are you satisfied now?"

"Truthfully," Chrome narrowed her good eye at Iris Heart, "I'd rather end your miserable life right here and now, but I promised Neptune I wouldn't..." She sighed and let her mace fall to the ground and dismissed it. "And I can tell, Neptune was right. You're similar to Iris Void, but you aren't quite as bad as she was."

Iris Heart let out a sigh. "About time. Tell me something, what did the other me do to her sister?" When Chrome told her, Iris Heart became more and more visibly upset. "...Please tell me that you or Neppy killed her."

"I smashed her skull in personally." Chrome answered her.

"Thank you," Iris Heart nodded to her. "The mere idea of torturing someone to the point that they'd be in that condition disgusts me." Chrome gave her a disbelieving look. "Don't get the wrong idea, I do love to bully and torment people, but I try to never leave permanent damage on their body. Bruises and shallow cuts... Okay, so I tore out what little hair Mr. Badd had on his head..." Iris Heart sighed and touched down a foot away from Chrome on the ground, wincing as she felt her legs scream at her. "...Can I ask you something?"

"What?" Chrome asked as Iris Heart sat down.

"First of all, sit down, your legs must be killing you." She said and Chrome glared at her. "Hmm?" She looked at her sword and dismissed it. "Right, anyway, tell me, what's your relationship to Neppy?"

Chrome sighed and sat down. "...At first, she was just someone that I thought was annoying, but then she gave me hope when she started talking like my elder sister did when she was alive, about how a real CPU should have been. When she proved she could fight against a Void, I began to see her as that, just someone who could end the Voids."

"So you didn't care for her?"

"Not at first." Chrome admitted to Iris Heart. "I do admit that I promised to follow her so long as she fought against the Voids. That changed after awhile and I started to care for her." She shook her head. "Why am I telling you this?"

"Because," Iris Heart smiled at her, "you love Neppy just like I do." Chrome stared at her and Iris Heart sighed, "I know Neppy doesn't feel romantic love towards me, that's fine though. What about you?"

Chrome sighed softly. "...I do care about her, a lot."

"NEPTUNA! I FOUND PLOOT!" A voice yelled from overhead and both Iris Heart and Chrome looked up as Yellow Heart and Black Heart who was carrying Neptune still lowered themselves down to the the group.

"Chrome! Plutie!" Neptune stared at them. "What happened?"

"I felt that Chrome needed to vent." Iris Heart told her and sighed. "So I came out here with her and let her vent. How did you find us?"

"P-ko figured you were out in the forest." Neptune replied while giving them both a stern look. "But really, look at you two! Fighting for no good reason! Plutie!" She pointed a finger at Iris Heart. "This is the kind of thing that makes fans mad at you and makes them want to see you beaten up or worse." Iris Heart flinched and Neptune looked at Chrome. "And you're always so calm! I told you not to try and kill Plutie if you met her!"

"And I wasn't trying to kill her." Chrome protested, she sighed at the look Neptune gave her. "I... I'm sorry, I really couldn't stand to be in the same room as her for that long and not want to kill her. But I held back."

Black Heart smiled and shifted Neptune so she could push herself out of Black Heart's arms and tackle both injured CPUs to the ground as she hugged them.

"I... I had to fight against people that looked like my friends." Neptune whimpered as she hugged both Iris Heart and Chrome. "Please, no more."

Both Iris Heart and Chrome looked at each other and nodded while hugging Neptune back. Even if there were negative feelings between them, they could put them aside.

If it made Neptune happy, they could do it.

End Epilogue 2

* * *

Just call me Billy Mays, because... Wait for it...

There's MORE!

...What? I told you that I couldn't bring myself to end Echoes that quickly.

And yes, I planned the "Blanc gets sad when she sees Rom has bigger boobs than her" joke from the beginning.

As for Poofy, as that's been asked, sadly, Poofy went poof with Gamworld. Yes, Filyn's friend went away. I'll explain more later, I promise.


	114. Epilogue 3

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

This was originally part of the last epilogue chapter. I broke it up because it was too long.

Oh, and before I forget, Farsight21, Blanc's outfit is white, yes, but her next most prominent color is blue. Really, dunno why they aren't named after their hair color for their HDD forms.

* * *

Epilogue 3

When they got back to the Basilicom, everyone stared at the injuries Plutia and Chrome were sporting. "What happened?!" Ultra Noire gasped as she saw her friend.

"Weeeeeell..." Plutia began and smiled. "If you think this is bad," she drawled out, "you should see the other person."

Black Heart rolled her eyes as she carried Neptune over to the wheelchair and put her down, transforming back. "I wouldn't know," Noire smirked at Plutia, "when we got there, it was just you two."

"Exactly." Chrome said as Yellow Heart turned back into Peashy.

"Well..." Neptune looked around. "Where's Iffy and Compa?"

Nepgear spoke up at that point. "Oh, they're out with the other IFs and Compas along with Marvy, CC2 and both Falcoms."

"...Boy, this is going to be confusing." Neptune giggled. "So, I know you all want to know what happened in Planeptune," she looked at Uzume, who was sitting at the table and eating a sandwich. "Well, after we took off from Lastation, we ended up running into a water tornado and that's when Histy directed us through it. And then it was like we ended up at Castle Grayskull."

Hyper Noire gave Neptune a sharp look. "You went "by the power of Grayskull" when you transformed, didn't you?"

Neptune giggled and nodded. "Uh huh, it was too appropriate."

Gamworld Nepgear spoke up to explain things with Chrome and Neptune filling in details of what happened in Planeptune.

"That pedo freak was there?!" Hyper Blanc hissed while her sisters both went blue in the face at the thought of dealing with him again.

"Uh huh!" Gamworld Peashy nodded. "He licked me and Filyn and he wanted to do other bad things too."

Filyn grimaced as she thought about that fight. "Then, well, I don't know what happened, but this crystal thing bonked me on the head and gave me lots of shares, so... Well, both Peashy and I were able to transform and..."

"HE WENT BOOM!" Gamworld Peashy threw her hands into the air.

Gamworld Uni explained what happened to Judge and then Neptune finally explained about her fight against her evil self during that time. Though she did leave out some details, like getting stabbed through the spine and being turned into a Void temporarily, just giving vague details about being badly injured thanks to her evil self and losing the ability to walk because of it for awhile.

"To think Kurome would do that." Uzume muttered, feeling horrible about what her other self had done to an entire dimension.

"Well, she's gone for good now." Neptune smiled. "Turns out that she kind of screwed up when she tried to take over my body."

"HUH?!" Everyone yelled.

Neptune blinked a few times as she looked at the reactions that the CPUs from Gamworld had. "Oh, right, all of you were in the other nations at the time. Yeah, Kurome took all the Fearicite energy that exploded after the Voids died and made one big Fearicite crystal and then she tried to rip my soul out of my body before Green Void, White Void and Black Void showed up, with all the other Void and Heart CPUs that died because of her and they sent her into the Fearicite and then it all went poof."

Hyper Noire face-palmed hard. "Jeez, make it sound horrible. But you are okay, right?" She asked, concern in her voice and Neptune nodded.

"Yeah. After that, we came here with everyone across Gamworld." Neptune sighed as she realized it was getting late. "And, well, that's kind of one of the reasons I called you all here. The people who came with from Gamworld..." She gave them all a small smile. "Some of them want to move into your nations."

Hyper Vert chuckled softly. "Leave it to Neptune to tell us a story that gripping and then tell us why she wanted us to show up. I have no problem having people move to Leanbox."

Neptune looked at Uni, Rom and Ram from Gamworld and gave them small smiles. "What do you three want to do?"

"I hope you're not mad at me," Gamworld Uni spoke up and looked at Ultra Noire, "but I'm going to go and live with her. I still have a lot to learn about being a CPU, I think."

Gamworld Rom looked troubled. "...I want to know the real Blanc..." She looked at Ultra Blanc and then back to Neptune. "Can we still come to visit?" Neptune nodded and found both Rom and Ram were hugging her tightly.

"Can we still call you big sis?" Ram asked softly.

"Yeah." Neptune smiled as she hugged them back. After a minute, the three ended the hug with the twins stepping back and Neptune looked at Ultra Vert. "Hey, Vert, did you bring the things I asked you to?"

"Indeed." Ultra Vert nodded and pulled out a small bag. "CPU Memories."

"So that's your plan, huh?" Ultra Noire chuckled. "Give each of them CPU Memories so they can transform again?"

"Well," Neptune smiled at her. "It seemed like a good idea." She looked at Chrome. "Do you think it's a good idea?"

Chrome scratched the back of her head as she thought about it. "I don't know how that item interacts with us, but they might still need to undergo the ritual to become fully realized CPUs." She shrugged. "Only way to know is to try it out."

Neptune nodded. "Alright, you heard the lady."

Ultra Vert chuckled and handed one to Gamworld Uni, one to Gamworld Rom and one to Gamworld Ram. "Hmm, I have three more, you said to bring six, but..."

"Well," Neptune scratched her cheek. "I figure that P-ko here," she ruffled Gamworld Peashy's head, "could be hooked up to Vert's Sharicite Crystal and get the ability to transform that way."

"It's a complicated process, but it's doable, at least for CPUs born in this world, but it's not well-known." Histoire said and looked at Blind Histoire. "What do you think?"

Blind Histoire shrugged, she had no clue about it herself. "This isn't something that I know, but if it's possible, then it's possible. I think that it should be observed closely though, due to the fact that they were born from Fearicite, but they did demonstrate back in Gamworld the ability to process and use Shares."

"Why did you ask for six, Neptune?" Chrome asked, confused.

"Because you and Filyn should have your powers too." Neptune answered her. "You never know when you might need it. Besides, you only need a few shares to transform."

Gamworld Uni looked at the CPU Memory in her hand and shrugged. "So, how do I use this?"

"You eat it." Neptune, Ultra Blanc and Plutia all said at the same time.

"It does look like a rice ball..." Gamworld Rom said before swallowing it, as did her sister and Uni.

The three opened their eyes in shock before they felt a surge of power and were engulfed in light as they transformed.

"Hey!" The transformed Uni looked at herself. "I'm back and, GAH! WHY AM I STILL IN THIS STUPIDLY SKIMPY OUTFIT?!"

"WAAAGH!" The transformed Ram whimpered. "I'm still showing almost everything!"

The transformed Rom looked at herself. "...So what we looked like before is what we look like now? ...That's neat."

"YOU'RE NOT SHOWING OFF SO MUCH OF YOUR BODY!" Both transformed CPU Candidates yelled at her, causing her to fall on her butt, their faces bright red.

"Wow!" Ram grinned as she looked at her other self. "That's so cool!" She suddenly ran around her other self and giggled loudly. "Hee hee hee! Other me's butt is even bigger now!"

"Stop staring!" The transformed Ram slapped her hands over her butt-cheeks and her heart-shaped tip glowed softly while her tail twitched over and over.

Uni stared at her other self, her face turning bright red. "JEEZ! That's indecent!" She thought the long tail was pretty neat and the coloring was cool, but her other self was showing off even more skin than she did in her Next-gen Cradle HDD outfit.

After all, her Next-gen Cradle outfit at least covered her butt-cheeks fully, unlike her other self's HDD form.

"So what do you call yourselves in this form?" Histoire asked as she was the only one not blushing like crazy.

"Darkness Sister Black," the transformed Uni said and pointed to the others, "Darkness Sister Pink, Darkness Sister Blue, Darkness Sister Yellow and," she pointed at Gamworld Nepgear, "Darkness Sister Purple."

Hyper Vert looked at Gamworld Peashy and smiled at her. "Well, you'll soon be Green Sister, okay?" Peashy nodded, smiling as Vert ruffled her hair playfully.

At that moment, Gamworld Nepgear was engulfed in a white light and transformed into her HDD form.

"What the goodness?!" Nepgear's eyes bugged out as she saw her other self's transformed state. "I imagine if I was Vert's sister that I'd end up wearing something like that."

"Well, shoot." Darkness Sister Purple muttered as she looked at herself. "Well, that confirms something and..." She trailed off at the looks that both Verts were giving her. "Uh..."

"Don't mind them," Hyper Noire's face was bright red, "they're a couple of perverts."

"After what we saw in Leanbox, this is amazingly tame." Chrome muttered and rolled her eyes.

"Wow, Other Neppy Jr.!" Plutia's eyes lit up upon seeing Darkness Sister Purple's HDD self. "You're really sexy like that." She ignored the sharp looks that both Chrome and Neptune gave her. "I bet you'd need to beat people off with a stick when you're like that."

Neptune suddenly laughed as she remembered how she almost had to do just that when Compa had started to fill out. "Plutie, I don't think everyone has to deal with that like our Compa did."

Plutia just giggled and stuck her tongue out.

Neptune smiled before tilting her head as she took on a contemplative look. "For some reason, I think I'm forgetting about something..." There was a sudden flash of light where Filyn was and Neptune slapped her forehead as she realized that Filyn had eaten her CPU Memory as well. "Oh yeah, I forgot about her."

All the Hyperdimension CPUs that didn't know about Filyn's transformation suddenly tensed up and stared in shock at who was in front of them. "CFW MAGIC?!"

"Huh?" Vermilion Heart looked at them in confusion and then looked at Neptune. "...Can you please explain this, because I don't understand."

"Ah, well, the version of you from this world fought us a long time ago, beat all four of us and Nepgear easily and then we were captured by tentacles and slowly drained to death." Neptune answered her. "Well, we weren't dead, but we weren't really conscious or alive during those three years."

"...Oh." Vermilion Heart looked at the CPUs who were glaring at her. "...Did she have a scythe too?" They nodded and she sighed heavily. "Well, that sure explains a lot, doesn't it?"

"Well," Neptune had an amused look on her face. "I always did call you a villain and you turn into the one that made all of us helpless for three years."

Vermilion Heart chuckled, her voice sounding just like CFW Magic's voice. "Well, at least now it makes sense. But my name is Vermilion Heart like this."

"Vermilion Heart, huh?" Histoire muttered as she looked over the CPU. "Yes, much better than CFW Magic." She looked at Neptune and shook her head. 'Leave it to Neptune to find an alternate dimension version of the one who beat them all in combat at the same time.

Neptune smiled and then looked at the other CPU Candidates. "Well, if it's okay," she looked at Ultra Blanc and Ultra Noire. "Take care of them, will you?"

"You make it sound like I'm irresponsible." Ultra Blanc gave Neptune an annoyed look. "It'll be nice to have some more people around though. And maybe they'll be less difficult to deal with than Copypaste when he tries to be quiet."

"And you should know that I'm not bad at taking care of people." Ultra Noire smirked at Neptune. "I took care of you, didn't I?" Neptune smiled and nodded.

"Big Sis Neptune," Darkness Sister Blue spoke up and smiled at her. "Thank you." She hugged Neptune again. "I love you, big sister."

Neptune smiled as she hugged the girl back. "I'm glad you let someone like me be your big sister." She said so softly that only Darkness Sister Blue could hear her.

"Ladies," Hyper Vert spoke up, "I do think that we should go to the areas where the people from the other dimension are at and find those who wish to go with us."

"Oh!" Neptune's eyes widened as she and Rom ended their hug. "Verty! Vert!" Both Verts looked at Neptune curiously. "I forgot to mention, the people from Leanbox are... Well, they might expect that it's okay to do the sort of thing that's okay at R-18 island. So you might want to lay down the law on them right away."

"Thanks for the warning." Both Verts muttered at the same time.

"Oh, and Vert," she looked at Ultra Vert, "can you stay here for a little bit?" Neptune looked at Nepgear. "Could you go with them, Nep Jr.?" She then looked at Uzume. "Can you help them too?"

"It's the least I can do since Kurome killed their world." Uzume said as she transformed into Orange Heart. "Ta da!" Her voice was pitched upwards and everyone who had never seen her before was shocked by her mannerism change. "Orange Heart is here to help."

"What is it with Planeptune CPUs and wild personality changes?" Ultra Blanc muttered, everyone else just shrugged.

"Sure, I'll help too." Nepgear nodded and walked out onto the patio with everyone, leaving Darkness Sister Purple, Ultra Vert, Histoire, Blind Histoire and Neptune alone.

Darkness Sister Purple would have left, but Neptune had grabbed her arm to stop her. "Why did you stop me, Neptune?"

"Well..." Neptune looked at her and then at Ultra Vert and sighed heavily. "Would you want to live with Vert in her world?"

"Neptune?" Both Vert and Darkness Sister Purple stared at her in surprise.

"I'm not trying to get rid of you, Nepgear, but I think that you'd do better to not be around me." Neptune sighed. "Sorry, not what I meant to say, I mean, it might be good for you to learn to be a proper CPU. And if you stay here, I'll want to treat you special and I'm worried that my Nepgear will get jealous." She suddenly grinned and chuckled. "Besides, if I let my Verty have you, people might get confused about which CPU Candidate is from which nation."

"But Neptune, I don't mind being here with you. I'd rather be here with you." Darkness Sister Purple told her.

"Can you at least try? Like... Maybe a couple of months?" Neptune hedged and sighed when Darkness Sister Purple looked hesitant. "Please?"

"Neptune," Vert began, "I do appreciate this, but why are you trying to push her onto me? You fought me tooth and nail to keep me from taking your Nepgear away from you, so why?"

Neptune looked troubled as she gripped the blanket over her legs. "Because... I... I..."

Seeing that, Vert shook her head. 'Something's not right.' A large part of her wanted to take Neptune's offer up. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that she could tell that there was something wrong with Neptune, she would have taken her up on that offer. But she knew, deep down, that if she did, Neptune would suffer and that wasn't something she could do to her friend. "Neptune... I know this sounds a bit out of character for me, but..." She looked at how Darkness Sister Purple looked hesitant. "I have to decline for now." Neptune looked at her in surprise. "If Nepgear doesn't wish to move in with me, well..." She sighed. "I admit, I'm saddened by her choice, but I would rather she came with willingly."

"...Are you feeling okay?" Neptune asked her and Vert huffed.

"I don't think I'd be able to handle a CPU Candidate and all the new people moving into Leanbox at the same time. Besides, if Nepgear wants to learn how to be a proper CPU, my door is always open." She winked at Darkness Sister Purple. "But," she gave Neptune a stern look, "if I hear of you treating this Nepgear like you did with your own sister in our world, I won't hesitate to come and take her away from you."

Neptune nodded as Vert turned, transformed into her goddess form and flew off. "Nepgear..?" She looked at Darkness Sister Purple, "why didn't you want to go with her?"

"Because I want to live with my real sister." She answered and gave Neptune a kiss on the forehead. "The one who loves me. Now I need to go help them guide people to the other nations. I'll be back, I promise."

Neptune watched as Darkness Sister Purple took off. "...Why though?"

"Neptune," Histoire spoke up and Neptune turned to look at her. The book fairy had a smile on her face as she floated over and gave Neptune a pat on the head. "You've changed a lot since your trip. Don't second-guess yourself or others. It's not you."

"Thanks, Histy." Neptune smiled and yawned. "I think I'll just take a nap on the couch." She rolled her wheelchair over to the couch and pulled herself off of the chair and onto the couch. The instant she was laying down, she was out cold, snoring softly.

Histoire smiled and floated over to Neptune and took the blanket off the floor and pulled it up over Neptune's body. "Sleep well." She stayed hovering over her CPU for some time afterwords, just looking at Neptune sleep.

Behind her, Blind Histoire had a knowing smile on her face as she nodded silently.

The two didn't leave, even as Filyn, Chrome, both Nepgears and Uzume came back hours later to report that the others had gone back to their nations with a sizable amount of people from the other world.

End Epilogue 3

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We're not done yet. There's one more to go.

And yeah, I do plan on coming back to everyone in the future with some one-shot chapters showing everyone adjusting to their new lives.

Yes, Chrome swallowed the CPU Memory, she just did it outside.


	115. Epilogue Final

Hyperdimension Neptunia is owned by Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

Final epilogue chapter.

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Epilogue 4

Yawning as she woke up, Neptune grabbed at the couch to pull herself up to a sitting position. "Nnngh, what time is it?" She looked around, not expecting an answer.

"Six in the morning." The answer she got would have had her jumping off the couch in fright if her lower body worked.

"NEPWHAA?!" Neptune yelled and fell off the couch, landing on her head. "Oww!"

"Neptune!" The voice called out and Neptune blinked a few times as her vision cleared up. "Are you okay?"

"Verty?" Neptune blinked as the blonde helped her back onto the couch. "I thought you went back to your nation with all of the people."

Vert smiled at her. "I did. Right now, everyone's sleeping, including Peashy, so I thought I'd come and check on you." She looked behind her as two more people walked into the living room from outside. "It seems like I'm not the only one." She smiled as the other two Hyperdimension CPUs came into view.

Noire looked at Neptune and had a concerned look on her face. "Hey," she said softly, "you feeling better?"

"I'm fine." Neptune had a confused look on her face. "Why do you ask?"

"Because you're not fine." Blanc countered as she and Noire walked in and grabbed some chairs to sit down near Neptune. "I know you left details out of that story, like why you can't walk right now."

"It... Wasn't important?" Neptune said and grimaced at the looks her friends gave her. "I mean, sure, it sucks, but I'm healing."

"How. Did. You. Get. Injured. Like. That?" Noire asked, punctuating each word and Neptune sighed, hanging her head.

"...Evil me had a god-killing sword and cut my back and stabbed me in the spine."

"Neptune..." Vert gasped in shock. "I'd say that was very important."

"You..." Blanc growled, her body trembling. "YOU IDIOT!" She screamed, her eyes glowing red and she suddenly tackled Neptune to the couch. "HOW COULD YOU GET INJURED LIKE THAT!?" She screamed before hiccuping and hugging Neptune tightly. "Before I apologized for telling you to leave and never come back?! If you died, I never would have gotten to apologize to you, you damn idiot!"

"Huh?" Neptune blinked a few times. "...Wait, you were serious about me going away?"

"NO!" Blanc yelled and hugged Neptune tighter. "Don't do that again, you idiot!" Neptune smiled and hugged Blanc back, enjoying the comfort of the hug.

"...Neptune," Noire said softly, causing her friend to look at her. "You said you were stabbed by a god-slaying sword... Did... Did you die?" Normally such a question wouldn't make sense, but Neptune had died once before she had gone on this adventure and apparently had gone to Hell before getting kicked out, so Noire was worried that Neptune had died a second time.

"Uh..." Neptune grimaced and nodded. "Kind of... I mean, Kurome stopped me from perma-death when she flooded me with negative energy and I... Uh..." She gulped as Noire and Vert gave her a stern look. "...I kind of was turned into a Void because of Kurome."

The next thing Neptune knew, she was being hugged by both Vert and Noire as well.

"You stupid idiot..." Noire muttered. "Dammit, why do you keep getting on adventures like this that ends with you getting hurt?"

"I'm okay, I mean..."

"No you aren't." Blanc said as she, Noire and Vert let go of the hug. She grabbed Neptune's arms and pulled her into a sitting position. "You look like you aged a thousand years on us." Neptune had a confused look on her face and she sighed. "Your smiles aren't reaching your eyes anymore."

"Huh?" Neptune tilted her head as she couldn't understand what Blanc was telling her. "But I'm fine and..."

"Why did you try to convince the other Nepgear to go with the other me?" Vert asked in a stern voice as she crossed her arms under her breasts. Neptune blinked in confusion and Vert sighed as she told Neptune what happened.

*Flash*

"Hey," Ultra Green Heart called out to her other self as they flew to the Western side of Planeptune city. "There's something wrong with Neptune."

Green Heart stopped and looked at both her other self and Darkness Sister Purple. "What do you mean?"

"You know how much Neptune fights to keep Nepgear from being charmed by either of us..."

Green Heart rolled her eyes. "Of course I do. It's why I was attempting to warm her up to the idea of marrying me so I could have Nepgear as my little sister before this happened. Why?"

Ultra Green Heart looked at Darkness Sister Purple and then back at her other self. "She just offered this Nepgear to me as my younger sister." Green Heart stared in absolute shock. "As much as it pains me, I didn't take her up on that offer. It's too out of character for her, I don't know..."

"Because Neptuna thinks she's a bad big sister." Peashy spoke up. "Pea don't know why, cuz Neptuna is awesome! But she keeps saying she's a bad big sister."

Green Heart lightly bit her lips. "I'll find out. Let's help the people out first and then I'll come back later to talk to Neptune, okay?" Ultra Green Heart, Darkness Sister Purple and Peashy all nodded.

*End Flashback*

"Well?" Vert asked with a raised eyebrow. Neptune fidgeted and she sighed. "Neptune, please... I worry about you."

Neptune looked down and a truly troubled look came over her face. "...I don't deserve to be her big sister."

"Jeez!" Noire spat in annoyance. "Are you STILL blaming yourself for that time when Kurome brainwashed us?"

Neptune snapped her head up, glaring at Noire as her left eye seemingly glowed with her anger. "And you're not?!"

"Of course we are!" Blanc snapped back. "I always feel bad about it and whenever I see Rom and Ram sleeping there's a part of me thinks back to how I almost killed them. But you... You're all super mopey and trying to get rid of one of your sisters. Why?"

The glow in Neptune's eye died down and the three watched as Neptune looked at her lap and clasped her hands together while she went silent.

"...Because I meant what I said when I was brainwashed." Neptune finally said after several minutes, getting a surprise gasp from the other three. "I know you three didn't mean what you did, that was just Kurome messing with you, but..." Tears started falling from her eyes as her body shook. "Everything I said and did... Those feelings were there in me, Kurome just brought them out." She raised her head to look at the other three. "I... It's not right for me to be Nepgear's big sister or anyone's big sister."

"Neptune," Noire said softly and knelt down to look her in the eyes. "What do you mean?"

"Remember... After Nepgear beat the Deity of Sin?" Noire, Vert and Blanc all nodded. "I went to take a walk around the city, to just see how things were and enjoy myself... People... They didn't seem as happy to see me as I remember them being. I even overheard some people saying that Nepgear was a better CPU than me... And then there's what happened when she trapped me in Plutie's world by accident. I'm glad that she's more independent now, but... All that time, I felt lots of anger."

"...And it didn't help when I would try to steal her away from you, huh?" Vert asked, sighing. "And how many times did we always tease you when you screwed up while praising Nepgear and being nice to her when she screwed up?"

Neptune nodded. "So I buried it, I knew I loved her, but then we got brainwashed and all those bad feelings came out and..."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Neptune gasped and looked up as she saw her sister, in pajamas, looking at her sadly. "Neptune, I love you, if you're upset with me, why didn't you tell me?"

"Because it's not right for me to be upset at you over this!" Neptune protested as Nepgear came over and sat on the couch next to Neptune. "...I'm sorry, but it was always there, and then I was exposed to Fearicite and was slowly corrupted and..." She pointed to her left eye. "I still feel the effects, I still get overwhelmed by the negative emotions."

"I see," Noire said and turned around to walk to the kitchen. "I'm thinking that we need some pancakes." She smiled at the confusion she was feeling from the others. "Why not? I'm hungry, I'm sure you're hungry too."

"I'll help." Vert followed after Noire while Blanc did the same.

After they were gone, Neptune looked at her sister. "I... I'm sorry, Nep Jr., I guess you..." She was quieted as Nepgear hugged her to her chest.

"I love you, Onee-chan." Nepgear said softly. "I'm always crying into your chest, so you can cry into mine sometime, okay? And, um..." She blushed hard. "I don't want you to stop being the CPU of Planeptune, okay?"

"Nepgear?" Neptune was confused and looked up at her. "Why?"

"Hmm..." Nepgear smiled happily. "Because the people love you. You are the main character after all."

Neptune giggled and sighed as she relaxed in her sister's embrace. "Thank you." Even if she was the older sister, it was nice to be hugged like this. She knew that Nepgear loved getting attention from her. "Sorry that I need you to comfort me like this."

Nepgear shook her head. "No... Because I know when I need to be comforted, you'll be there for me. We're sisters, right? We can help each other out."

"Thanks, Nep Jr.." Neptune smiled as she enjoyed the hug.

By the time the pancakes were done, both sisters were starting to drift off and would have fallen asleep cuddling against each other, if not for the fact that their stomachs loudly growled and demanded food.

The two laughed at that and Nepgear helped Neptune into her wheelchair and pushed her to the table. The two sisters, Noire, Vert and Blanc all sat down and enjoyed a large stack of pancakes.

Unknown to everyone, Histoire had listened in on the conversation, as she had been sleeping on the top of a bookcase since she had wanted to watch over Neptune but had gotten sleepy and had napped until Blanc's yelling woke her up. '...I guess I do praise Nepgear too much some days and criticize Neptune too much too.'

After hearing the story of what happened and the cause of Neptune's horrific injuries, she figured that toning down those things was the least she could do.

A few moments later, Chrome, Filyn, Uzume, Big Neptune and the other Nepgear walked into the kitchen. "Is there enough for us as well?" Chrome asked them.

"Swule." Noire muttered before swallowing her food. "Sorry, but yes, I made enough to feed Neptune if she hadn't eaten in two days." Neptune just stuck her tongue out at Noire.

Everyone at the table started to laugh at the five of them pulled up to the table to eat.

Neptune smiled as she looked around the table. It was good to be home, but more important to her, it was good to be with her closest friends and family.

No matter how bad things got, so long as they were there for her, she could pull through in the end.

"Something wrong, Neptune?" Blanc asked as Neptune was looking at all of them with a contemplative expression on her face.

"Nah," Neptune shook her head, "just thinking about how much I love all of ya."

Noire and Blanc both turned crimson red when they heard that and Noire coughed as she was in the middle of swallowing her food. "What do you mean by that?" Noire asked, steam coming out of her ears.

Neptune giggled and smiled. "I'll leave that one up for the readers to decide." She winked at no on in particular.

End Epilogue 4

Echoes of the Dark Finish

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Don't forget to check out the afterword.


	116. Afterword

Hyperdimension Neptunia belongs to Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Sega and whomever else worked on it.

If you clicked on "go to last chapter" and ended up here, wondering where the real chapter is, click back one and read that first, you silly people. Leave a review for that and then come here and read this.

* * *

Afterword

So this is the end of Echoes of the Dark. To everyone who made it this far, thank you. I hope you enjoyed the story and all the twists and turns it had.

I'm actually going to talk about some of my thought processes for the story here.

Let's start with the nations. When I was brainstorming this fic, I thought "Okay, Lowee should be a frontier-like place, forests, jungles and kind of the Wild West small towns." My next thought was about Planeptune and I was thinking along the lines of a fortress. The idea to make it Castle Grayskull as Neptune put it came to me later. Though I did change the interior. The residential area of Planeptune was based around the residential area of Xenoblade Chronicles X for the Wii U. If you've not played it, that's fine, just letting you know. Lastation was easy for me, at least the nation, as I remembered that Noire in Re;birth 1 was like "I don't want my nation to be ruined by pollution" and I thought an evil version of Noire wouldn't care about it.

I actually had no idea what Leanbox would be like and I just put it off until later.

As for the CPUs themselves, all of them had their HDD forms based off of the Chaos Hearts from Chaos Chanpuru for the PSVita, which is a Japanese exclusive, sadly. Their human forms were based off of concept artwork as much as I could. Sadly, Vert, Peashy and Plutia didn't change too much from the concept stage to what we got in the final product. Though there were some neat clothing choices for Plutia. And, also sadly, there was no Chaos Yellow Heart or Chaos Iris Heart to draw upon.

The Nightmare forms were something that came to me because I thought it would be interesting if Neptune had to be at a disadvantage for most of the fic because of it.

White Nightmare was based off of a beast. Honey Badger/Giant Cat, hence why she had those large floating hands that were like they would be from a Stand from Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventures. Hence why I said "why YES, this IS a Jo Jo's reference!" when White Nightmare was revealed.

Green Nightmare was a spider with tentacles, but, much like with Leanbox, I had no clue what it would be. But just before I got to writing Green Nightmare, I saw a clip from Taimanin Asagi with a girl who had a spider body and tentacles and thought "bam! Perfect!" As for Leanbox, well, that was based on the fact that a lot of the adult RPGs I've played on PC were dungeon crawlers such as Lightning Warrior Raidy among others. And we all know the most infamous form of offbrand anime is the tentacle genre, so that was an automatic given.

Why did she have so many sisters? Because that would be ironic that the Vert who didn't want younger sisters would get them while the Verts that wanted a younger sister didn't get them.

Now, as for Eden, since that was the next arc in the fic. The area of all the buildings and businesses that Chrome remembered was actually based on the small town that I grew up in. Hence the comment about a small town that had lots of good memories for many people but it stopped growing and there were no opportunities for younger people. The idea of turning the nation into a decaying swamp was kind of a shout-out to the Legend of Zelda, specifically Breath of the Wild.

If you're curious, Iris Nightmare would have been based on a lizard.

As I mentioned in the fic, the idea of Lastation being Cyberpunk was a last-minute change thanks to my beta reader because he wanted to see humans being the bad guys for an arc. And that changed everything.

But if you want to know, Noire was originally going to be like Balalika from Black Lagoon who would torment Uni by trying to isolate her and make her feel lonely. In fact, the original first scene with Noire would have had Uni, K-Sha and a white cat in front of her and Noire would berate Uni for trying to make friends and she should only be alone before killing K-Sha and the cat in front of Uni, who would be greatly disturbed by it.

These original concepts did make it into the finished product, albeit heavily modified though, as you saw with Noire's comments to Uni about friends and humans. It's also why there were two cats in Lastation and one of them got blown up by K-Sha and why K-Sha got killed by Noire.

I prefer the version I did over the original concept.

As for Black Nightmare, the idea of a wolf was perfect as Noire, being a loner, would have been a Lone Wolf... Plus she had to be an Alpha Wolf to deal with the stuff in Lastation. Though I did kind of base the fact that it was a tiny thong and her butt was on full display off of the "Dangerous Beast" outfit that's in the Fate series. You know the one.

Allow me to address a couple of giants in the room. Namely Dark Black and what Neptune saw just before the battle against Dark Black. What Neptune saw was the gauntlet of her NEXT form appear on her wrist for a moment. Dark Black's appearance was to hint that the Kurome we met in Lastation was actually the Kurome from Gamindustri. I'll explain more about Kurome in a little bit.

So, as for Eviltune, I based her off of the Joker from DC's Batman series, hence why she was completely... Well, psychotic and evil. MAGES. was based off of Harley Quinn, specifically the Harley Quinn from her own show. Where she's a bad guy, but not a bad person. The fact that she had rings on each finger is actually a reference to The Mandarin from Iron Man.

Nepgear being a maid is rather interesting and a complete accident on my part. Apparently her Japanese voice actress voices Belfast from Azur Lane, and yes, she's a maid there. So, happy coincidence.

The reason I had Peashy and Filyn face Trick was because I thought it would be funny when they transformed from two lolis into women with giant breasts and you know how Trick hates big boobies.

Purple Nightmare's first form was actually the first Nightmare form I thought up. Her second, and out of control, form was something I wanted to do with Green Nightmare, but I decided against it then, but I decided to do it at that point.

Purple Heart's corrupted Void transformation was based around Evil Ryu from Street Fighter IV, which was actually something I had planned on doing as soon as the idea of Neptune being corrupted by Fearicite entered my mind. Which was right around the time Leanbox was over.

As for Kurome... Originally it was going to be Gamworld's version of Uzume and Rei that caused the world to go to Hell. One of my beta readers was like "that doesn't sound good" so I had to think about it and I was about to put the fic on hiatus to plan it out when NepShrimpz left a review about how the fact that one month in Gamworld was one day in Gamindustri and that the time just seemed to work out.

This was NOT something I had planned on in the slightest, I admit. The numbers, both for the years since the Fearicite came into being and the time difference between the dimensions, were just randomly chosen. The fact that it ended up working out was, again, a happy coincidence. And once NepShrimpz pointed that out, my mind went into overtime and I was able to make the final bit of the story work out the way it did.

A few more notes about the characters...

Steamax, funny enough, was only slightly changed from what he was going to be originally. Original idea was that he watched over Uni and made sure to bring her back to the Basilicom when she was out too long, but was apologetic to Uni for all that she suffered through. That was basically it. Yes, the plan to make Lastation a Cyberpunk setting made everything about it better. Well, except for maybe the length, as that was the longest arc of the story. What do you all think?

Chrome was originally going to be a good, if cynical, version of Arfoire, but after playing Super Neptunia RPG, I decided to go with Chrome instead and then I brought in Filyn. And when I saw concept artwork for Filyn with an eyepatch and I saw that her Japanese voice was the same as Arfoire and CFW Magic's voice, I knew I had to have Filyn's HDD be CFW Magic.

This is also the reason that Trick and Judge appeared in Planeptune. If I was going to have Magic show up and I had Brave appear in the fic, I felt it was wrong to not have those two so I could have them get smashed. XD

If I'm honest, I had no idea what I was going to do with Filyn, but she was great for some running gags and I'm honestly surprised how things went for her. I think I did a decent enough job. I hope I did at least.

As for Poofy, and I'm sure some of you were waiting on this, my original idea for this fic was for Planeptune to be a flying fortress, hence why it was hovering over the ocean. In fact, my very first idea with Planeptune was for Purple Void to announce, after Noire was dead, that she was going to be showing up soon and killing everyone in Lastation who didn't submit to her. So the fight against Purple Void would have happened in Lastation instead of Planeptune. Poofy was going to show up at some time during the fight against Purple Void/Nightmare as his large self and basically tackle Purple Void/Nightmare to protect Filyn, giving Neptune the chance to end her evil self.

I actually was going to go with that for awhile, but as I wrote the story, it just didn't end up working out that way.

Oh, and he was supposed to be a Gem Dragon, hence why they were mentioned at the beginning. I suppose if this was a visual novel or a video game, the fact that they took a boat to get to Lowee City in Gamworld is why they don't have Poofy. They didn't trip the event flags to unlock the secret character, like they would have if they went through the forest, but Rom and/or Ram would have likely been dead or turned into a Void, so... Which would you prefer?

Copypaste WAS originally slated to be in the fic, he would have been Nepgear's butler. But I realized that I didn't want to write him into the fic, that would just increase character bloat and I decided he would be cut out.

Rom and Ram's attitude and behavior at the start of the fic was based heavily on "Into the Abyss" by Blade of Justice as that gave me the idea to do this fic. Also why I had them dressed that way.

Okay, so, why does Rom have boobs? Besides the joke with Blanc in the epilogue, that was actually inspired by "Candidates in Time" by Histy is Pissty when Rom mentions that in the future after she became a CPU in her timeline, she actually developed breasts. Hence why Rom here has boobs that are between Uni's human form and Nepgear's human form in size. Ram having a ghetto booty is just to compliment Rom's boobs. No other reason.

Financier, Chika, Kei and Histoire weren't thrown in at the last minute, I swear! Most of the rest were last minute additions, though it was more because I didn't want to focus too much beyond the arc I was in as it would delay my writing and frustrate me that I wasn't in the next arc already.

Once I included K-Sha, C-Sha, S-Sha and E-Sha, I felt that I had to include B-Sha into the fic. Same with Mina after realizing that I had Chika, Kei and Histoire. It would feel wrong if I didn't have her in the story too.

But I didn't want her to be there just to be there, so I thought, how could I make Mina actually mean something to the fic? And the idea of her being a clone that Eviltune made popped into my head. If you're wondering where Mina, Financier and most of the other named characters were at... Chika, Financier and Mina were helping doing paperwork during the time they got to Planeptune and the ending in the epilogue. They wouldn't let their hero do much work while she's recovering after all.

Not that it stopped Neptune from working.

As for Compa and Warechu as well as IF and Linda... None of that stuff with them was planned from the beginning. I swear! As I wrote the story, as I gave them scenes, the idea of them being with each other just developed as the story did.

Gust having blue hair was, yes, a reference to NISA as well, though NISA did eventually appear in the story anyway.

The Voids were, and most of you figured this out, I bet, at their cores, evil inversions of the CPUs we all know and love.

White Void was all of Blanc's rage and anger, but none of her restraint or caring that she has for Rom, Ram and her friends.

Green Void was what happens when you take away Vert's restraint, enhance her hedonism and perversion and you get a horrible rape machine.

Black Void was taking Noire's lonely nature and her Tsundere attitude to an extreme. Ironically, this is what saved Uni from suffering like Rom, Ram, Peashy and Nepgear did, as Black Void stopped caring about everything, including the Fearicite's influence on her. Weird how that worked out.

Iris Void was all of Plutia's sadism with no brakes on the rape train. And yes, she very likely raped more than a few people before torturing them to death. I mean, even Neptune calls regular Plutia a sadistic rapist in this fic.

Purple Void was Neptune's perversion, laziness, pettiness and greed but greatly enhanced, along with her randomness.

So, if you were wondering what each OC CPU's human name is, I'll be going by Neptunia naming conventions here.

Red Void's human name is Rouge, Sapphire Void's human name is Saphir, Emerald Void's human name is Esmeralda (derived from émeraude), Silver Heart's human name is Argent. Basically, like how Noire, Vert and Blanc are named after the French names for Black, Green and White, so too are the OC CPUs. I do wish that we'd get some other CPUs from the other nations though, whether past or alternate dimension CPUs, because I'd love to know if this is correct or not.

I guess the final thing I'll say is for all of you who wish to write your own stories in the future or are working on your own stories: Don't be afraid to make your characters suffer. The greater the personal challenge, the greater the feeling of triumph when they overcome it. That's why I put Neptune through the literal hell she went through in this story.

See you all when I work on my next project. What it is, I dunno.


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